Published on
Updated
Reading 2 min.
What if tomorrow, your bra allowed you to monitor the health of your breasts? A team from Nottingham Trent University is working to develop a device discreet enough that it could be inserted discreetly without discomfort.
Scientists are developing a smart device that can slip into a bra and monitor whether a breast cancer tumor is growing.
A device to monitor tumor growth from 2 mm
A team from Nottingham Trent University’s Medical Technology Innovation Center is working to create the device which could help save women’s lives by monitoring tumor growth in real time. The technology will work via a form of electrical current that can scan and detect tiny changes in fluids inside and outside cells.
Knowing that tumor tissue is denser than healthy tissue (it contains less water), the device would be able to measure the changes and growth of the tumor – up to just 2 mm. This technology could be used as an insert in a patient’s bra or potentially developed via a new bra incorporating the device.
Data potentially sent to the doctor via smartphone
It would not be intended to replace other monitoring tools and patient treatments. But this data could be recorded and transmitted to the patient and her doctor via smartphone. This constant monitoring of tumor growth could on the one hand reduce the need for many other checks, such as MRI, ultrasound and mammograms, and on the other hand to be able to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of treatments in order to to adapt them quickly in the event of tumor growth.
Tomorrow a new type of screening?
Through increased monitoring and assessment, it is hoped the technology will help provide patients with peace of mind. “The technology would measure changes in breast tissue and help improve a patient’s chances of survival,” said Dr. Yang Wei, an expert in e-textiles and electronic engineering at the University’s Medical Technology Innovation Center. Nottingham Trent University.
The researcher even envisages that such a device could participate in screening tomorrow: “Breast cancer can grow so quickly that it can reach 1 mm in six months or 2 mm in six weeks. This would be an additional measure to see how quickly the tumor is growing. We open the door to an alternative method of breast cancer screening that could be performed in the comfort of the patient’s home, saving essential hospital resources while providing a viable solution for detecting early signs of cancer“.
No clinical tests yet
For the moment, the device has not yet been clinically tested and the team will now proceed with the optimization and validation of the technology. The researchers’ objective is for the device to move to the clinical trial stage, if possible in the coming years.
Other teams are working on developing similar devices; we heard about a team from MIT working on a portable ultrasound system capable of being integrated into a bra. To find out more, read our article “Breast cancer: an ultrasound machine to slip into the bra for earlier diagnosis”