The objective of the proposed Phase II program is to design, fabricate, and test in an animal model a flexible system for the rapid and accurate non-invasive measurement of skin and subsurface tissue temperatures over large areas of the body. To accomplish this objective we propose to adapt the dual-frequency, self-calibrating radiometer developed in Phase I for use with 32 microwave receive antennas, include means for measuring skin temperatures, and to design and fabricate multi-layer thin and flexible conformal array antennas that may be used not only for diagnostic tissue temperature measurements, but also for monitoring and controlling existing microwave and ultrasound hyperthermia treatment devices. Application that are expected to benefit from this critical enabling technology range from the detection of subsurface inflammations and primary breast cancer, to rapid monitoring of the efficacy of cancer treatments and anti-inflammatory therapies, to monitoring and feedback control of heat therapy to large areas of skin such as is required for hyperthermia treatment of chestwall recurrence of breast cancer and plaque psoriasis lesions.
Potential commercial applications of the conformal radiometer array include devices for monitoring and controlling of superficial hyperthermiua therapies for cancer and psoriasis, for detection and monitoring of sub-surface inflammation and cancer, and for monitoring the efficacy of anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and blood perfusion enhancing therapies.
