Optimization of the Working Conditions for Magnetic Nanoparticle-Enhanced Microwave Diagnostics of Breast Cancer.

Magnetic nanoparticle-aided microwave imaging is recently gaining an increasing interest as a potential tool for breast cancer diagnostics. This is due to the peculiar features of magnetic nanoparticles, which are biocompatible, can be selectively targeted to the tumor, and may change their microwave magnetic response when modulated by a polarizing magnetic field. This latter aspect is particularly appealing, as it enables the physical separation of the microwave signal due the malignancy, targeted by the nanoparticles, from that due to healthy tissue. This increases the specificity of the diagnostic tool, in principle allowing a diagnosis based solely on the detection of the signal due to the nanoparticles response. In this respect, a proper choice of the polarizing field modulation can remarkably increase the detection performances. This paper deals with this issue, by providing the mathematical framework for such an optimization and a procedure for estimating the required quantities from a set of proper measurements. The procedure is then experimentally demonstrated by applying it to a recently developed ultrawideband radar system for the magnetic nanoparticle-aided detection of breast cancer. For such a system, the optimal magnetic field modulation is determined.