A simple model for electromagnetic scattering due to breast tumour

Microwave breast imaging techniques have been proposed over the past few years because of their potential for breast cancer diagnosis. The basis is the high contrast in electrical properties between malignant and normal human breast tissues at the microwave frequency region. The observed high contrast is due to significantly different fluid contents, sodium concentrations, and electro-chemical properties. For example, at 3 GHz, the contrast between the properties of the malignant breast tumour and the normal tissues is more than 4 for the relative permittivity and 6 for the electrical conductivity [1]. This high contrast gives rise to a large electromagnetic scattering field when electromagnetic waves are incident onto a malignant tumour embedded in a normal tissue.