Development and Measurement of Breast Tissue Mimicking Phantom with Medium and Low Adipose Content for Microwave Ablation Therapy Evaluation

Breast cancer is the most common and deadly cancer among women worldwide. Microwave ablation (MWA) is a minimally invasive therapy that uses electromagnetic radiation to heat and destroy tumor cells. However, the effectiveness of MWA depends on the dielectric properties of the breast tissue, which vary according to the adipose content. In this work, we developed and measured two novel tissue-mimicking phantoms that represent high and medium adipose densities in breast tissue. We used a network analyzer and a dielectric probe to measure the complex relative permittivity and electrical conductivity of the phantoms in the frequency range of 2-4.5 GHz. We found that the phantoms had similar dielectric characteristics to the biological breast tissue reported in the literature. At 2.45 GHz, the high-density phantom had a mean relative permittivity of 54.2720 ± 8.6327 and a mean conductivity of 1.13972 ± 0.1811 S/m, while the medium-density phantom had a mean relative permittivity of 51.5931 ± 8.3708 and a mean conductivity of 0.8955 ± 0.1551 S/m. These phantoms can be used to evaluate and optimize MWA therapy for different breast tissue types, potentially improving the treatment outcomes for breast cancer patients with other adipose tissue densities.