National breast screening programmes using X-ray mammography are the front-line weapon in the fight to improve breast cancer survival statistics – yet many still choose not to attend appointments because of fear of potential harm and discomfort. Work at the Faculty of Engineering has helped to address this problem with an innovative new solution that is safer, more comfortable and can improve early diagnosis in younger patients.

Problems with X-Ray

The principal issue with X-ray equipment used to detect cancer, is that it involves potentially harmful ionising X-ray exposure. It can also cause discomfort for some patients due to the need for compression of the breast. This can account for why only around 70% of women attend their screening appointments. There is also evidence that X-ray performs poorly in women with denser breast tissue, as a result, women under age 50 are not offered routine screening in most countries, including the UK.

Lateral thinking delivers a new radar-based solution

The origin of Bristol’s solution to this challenge came from an unlikely source. Following work on landmine detection funded by the Ministry of Defence, a team led by Professor Ian Craddock proposed a novel radar-based breast cancer imaging system as an alternative to X-ray imaging. With funding from EPSRC, the team took the technology from theoretical simulation through to lab studies and on to the implementation of a clinical system. In particular the team’s expertise in radar signal processing, electromagnetic modelling of complex structures and wideband antenna design led to key breakthroughs that included the design of suitable antenna and array structures along with focussing algorithms.

The experimental system was initially evaluated using human body ‘phantoms’, which proved it capable of imaging phantom tumours down to 4 mm diameter that are classed as early-stage cancer.

Creation of a new commercial solution – with huge benefits to patients

Following the success of early research, the University of Bristol set up a spin-out company, Micrima Ltd, which licensed the relevant University IP and gained European regulatory CE approval for its first commercial system, MARIA™, in 2015.

When the company published its first trial data the results showed a notably higher early detection rate over traditional X-Ray mammograms in the denser breasts of younger women – highly significant because women with dense breast tissue have a higher risk of breast cancer.

All feedback from the trials also indicated that the scan is much more comfortable for women. The MARIA™ device also uses low power radio waves at a similar frequency to those commonly used by millions of mobile phones, which makes it harmless and non-ionising and removes all limits on how many times the system can be used to image a patient.

To date, Micrima has received over £14 million of investment to commercialise the technology.