Data-driven matched field processing for radar-based microwave breast cancer detection

This paper presents a data-driven matched field processor for microwave breast cancer detection. In contrast to many existing radar-based algorithms the proposed technique estimates the wave propagation characteristics from the measurements on a patient specific basis. This improves the sensitivity and specificity of microwave approaches for this specific application. In this paper, we consider the localization problem of a tumor in fatty and fibroglandular tissue. The benefits of the proposed method will be discussed in terms of the localization uncertainty when no a-priori information about the permittivity of the underlying breast tissue is available. Moreover, we will show imaging results based on simulated data and a statistical analysis from Monte-Carlo trials.