article · IEEE Access
A microwave-based approach for detecting kidney cancer uses a four-element circularly polarised patch antenna array operating at the 2.4 GHz frequency. The array was fabricated on a standard FR-4 substrate with overall dimensions of 200 by 78 millimetres, maintaining mutual coupling between adjacent elements below 20 dB. Evaluation was conducted using a multi-tissue renal phantom that includes skin, fat, muscle, adrenal gland, ureter, renal capsule, and kidney cortex. Tumours across four developmental stages were assessed. The presence of renal cancer produces an increase in the reflection coefficient and a shift in resonance frequency. While early-stage detection relies primarily on the reflection coefficient increase, advanced stages trigger substantial frequency shifts as well. Computed specific absorption rates confirm the technique operates within human safety limits.
Conventional cancer imaging tools can be costly, complex, or reliant on ionising radiation. Developing safe microwave-based screening methods offers a non-invasive, comfortable alternative for detecting kidney tumours. Because the underlying hardware is compact and fabricated from standard materials, this approach could help expand access to fast and relatively inexpensive diagnostic assessments.
This technology is at an early research stage, having been validated only on synthetic phantoms rather than in clinical trials. It could eventually enable compact, low-cost screening hardware for hospital oncology departments or diagnostic centres. Moving towards commercialisation will require extensive validation on biological tissues, safety testing in human subjects, and integration with real-time signal processing hardware.
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The use of a circularly polarized patch antenna array to detect kidney cancer by microwave techniques is proposed in this paper. A four-element linear antenna array is designed and fabricated at the ISM frequency of 2.4 GHz. The dimensions of the antenna array are 200 mm × 78 mm. The single element is a square patch with side length of 30 mm. The distance between patches is chosen to be 20 mm which ensures that mutual coupling between any two adjacent patches is less than 20 dBs. The substrate is a FR-4 material of relative permittivity 4.3 and thickness 1.6 mm. The circular polarization has an axial ratio of 0.8 dB at 2.4 GHz. The bandwidth at S<sub>11</sub> = -10 dB is 7.23 %. Renal system phantom consisting of kidney cortex, renal capsule, ureter, adrenal gland, muscle, fat, and skin is used. Four stages of renal cancer tumors are considered depending upon the tumor size in each stage. The presence of a tumor causes an increase in the reflection coefficient (S<sub>11</sub>) and a shift in resonance frequency, which can be used to identify cancer. The increase in reflection coefficient and the shift in resonance frequency are calculated for each stage of the cancer tumors. The shift in resonance frequency for the early stages is too small. Therefore, detection depends mainly on the increase in S<sub>11</sub>. The shift in resonance frequency and increase in S<sub>11</sub> are large for advanced stages of the tumor, which makes detection easier. Computed specific absorption rate (SAR) is found to be less than the safety levels, which means this technique is safe to use. Overall, this work suggests a new simple detection technique of kidney cancer. The advantages of this technique are safety, compact, fast, inexpensive, comfortable examination, non-invasive, and finally non- ionizing radiation during measurement.
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DOI: 10.1109/access.2022.3192555
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