She also started a research partnership with Frederick Kelcz, associate professor of medicine and expert on breast cancer detection. Although clinical trials are down the road, the team is conducting microwave measurements on breast tissue excised during biopsies at UW Hospital and Clinics. They are also creating computer simulations that test microwave sensor designs in realistic environments. The work seeks to answer two key questions, Hagness says. According to Kelcz, mammograms are known to miss a significant number of breast cancers, especially in younger women.
False positives are even more widespread.
Of the women who follow up with biopsies of an abnormality, about 70 percent of them do not have cancer. Microwaves are a non-ionizing form of electromagnetic waves that interact with tissue according to water content. In Hagness' research, low-power microwaves are used like sonar to bounce a signal off the tissue. Since tumors have a higher water content compared to normal tissue, they will back-scatter the microwaves and produce an echo. The measurements of those echoes enable Hagness to develop a 3-D image of the tumor.