Microwave Detection of Metastasized Breast Cancer Cells in the Lymph Node; Potential Application for Sentinel Lymphadenectomy

Metastasis is the leading cause of death in breast cancer patients and an appropriate detection of metastasis can provide better prognosis and quality treatments. Microwaves can reveal the unique electromagnetic properties of materials, and this study aims to unleash the electromagnetic properties of breast cancer cells, especially, metastasized cancer cells in the lymph nodes, using broad-band microwaves in attempts to detect metastases. To distinguish the cancer-specific patterns of cancer tissues, three primary microwave parameters were assessed, i.e., permittivity in mid-band frequency (3–5 GHz), conductivity in high-band frequencies (25–30 GHz) and slope changes of permittivity at high-band frequencies (15–30 GHz). An additional parameter, Cancer Metastasis Index (CMI), was developed to effectively represent all parameters. Broadband microwave scanning can reveal cancer specific electromagnetic behaviors in all three parameters, and these were reliably reflected by CMI. CMI effectively magnified the difference of the electromagnetic properties between normal nodal tissues and cancer tissues. immunohistochemistries were performed to verify the origin of electromagnetic changes represented by CMI values.

[1]  A. Giuliano,et al.  Detection of metastases in sentinel lymph nodes of breast cancer patients by multiple‐marker RT‐PCR , 1998, International journal of cancer.

[2]  H. Cody,et al.  Is Routine Intraoperative Frozen-Section Examination of Sentinel Lymph Nodes in Breast Cancer Worthwhile? , 2000, Annals of Surgical Oncology.

[3]  R. W. Lau,et al.  The dielectric properties of biological tissues: II. Measurements in the frequency range 10 Hz to 20 GHz. , 1996, Physics in medicine and biology.

[4]  Mark C Kelley,et al.  Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy for breast cancer. , 2004, American journal of surgery.

[5]  I. Fidler,et al.  Angiogenesis and cancer metastasis: antiangiogenic therapy of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma , 2001, International Journal of Clinical Oncology.

[6]  T. S. ENGLAND,et al.  Dielectric Properties of the Human Body for Wave-lengths in the 1–10 cm. Range , 1950, Nature.

[7]  L. Sha,et al.  A review of dielectric properties of normal and malignant breast tissue , 2002, Proceedings IEEE SoutheastCon 2002 (Cat. No.02CH37283).

[8]  S. S. Chaudhary,et al.  Dielectric properties of normal & malignant human breast tissues at radiowave & microwave frequencies. , 1984, Indian journal of biochemistry & biophysics.

[9]  C. Dinney,et al.  Sentinel lymph node dissection for penile carcinoma: the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center experience. , 1995, The Journal of urology.

[10]  P. Saigo,et al.  Predictors of recurrence in stage I (T1N0M0) breast carcinoma. , 1981, Annals of surgery.

[11]  C. Gabriel,et al.  Admittance models for open ended coaxial probes and their place in dielectric spectroscopy. , 1994, Physics in medicine and biology.

[12]  M. Fan,et al.  Lymph node micrometastases from breast carcinoma , 1997, Cancer.

[13]  F. E. Gardiol,et al.  Reflection of an open-ended coaxial line and application to nondestructive measurement of materials , 1981, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[14]  W. Joines,et al.  The measured electrical properties of normal and malignant human tissues from 50 to 900 MHz. , 1994, Medical physics.

[15]  S. Ishiguro,et al.  Application of sentinel node biopsy to gastric cancer surgery. , 2001, Surgery.

[16]  S. Saha,et al.  Sentinel lymph node mapping in colorectal cancer--a review. , 2000, The Surgical clinics of North America.

[17]  Mauro Fabrizio,et al.  Time-harmonic fields , 2003 .

[18]  P. Stanton,et al.  Sentinel node localization in patients with breast cancer , 1998, The British journal of surgery.

[19]  Umberto Veronesi,et al.  Sentinel‐Node Biopsy to Avoid Axillary Dissection in Breast Cancer with Clinically Negative Lymph‐Nodes , 1998 .

[20]  D. Weaver,et al.  Surgical resection and radiolocalization of the sentinel lymph node in breast cancer using a gamma probe. , 1993, Surgical oncology.

[21]  Shinzaburo Noguchi,et al.  The detection of breast carcinoma micrometastases in axillary lymph nodes by means of reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction , 1994, Cancer.

[22]  C. Redmond,et al.  Relation of number of positive axillary nodes to the prognosis of patients with primary breast cancer. An NSABP update , 1983, Cancer.

[23]  A. Giuliano,et al.  Pathologic Examination of Sentinel Lymph Node for Breast Carcinoma , 2001, World Journal of Surgery.

[24]  A. Singer.  Accuracy of intraoperative frozen-section analysis of axillary nodes. , 1999, The British journal of surgery.

[25]  Shinzaburo Noguchi,et al.  The detection of breast carcinoma micrometastases in axillary lymph nodes by means of reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction , 1995, Cancer.

[26]  J. Thomas,et al.  Accuracy of intraoperative frozen‐section analysis of axillary nodes , 1999, The British journal of surgery.