A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a new wearable ultrasound device that could help women monitor and detect signs of breast cancer early on. The new device is described in a recent article published in Science Advances.
Aside from skin cancers, breast cancer is the most common cancer to affect women. In fact, it’s estimated that 1 in 8 American women (about 12%) are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives. The good news, though, is that when caught early enough, breast cancer has a nearly 100% survival rate.
The only challenge, however, is actually detecting breast cancer early enough. Researchers at MIT believe their wearable ultrasound device could be part of that effort to detect cancer early. It may be especially useful for high-risk patients to monitor for breast cancer before regularly-scheduled mammograms. It’s during these intervals between mammograms that some 20 to 30% of breast cancer cases actually occur, making it a vital time for monitoring.
The device itself is a thin, flexible patch that can be worn in a bra, making it a minimally-invasive option for women to wear. The wearer can then use an ultrasound and pass it over the patch to take images of the breast. According the study, researchers were able to generate images with the patch that were on par in terms of quality with those produced in a clinic setting. And to actually make the device the size it is, researchers incorporated piezoelectric material to achieve the size they needed without minimizing quality.
To test the device, researchers worked with the MIT Center for Clinical and Translational Research. They followed one participant: a 71-year-old woman. The new device enabled researchers to detect cysts as small as 0.3 centimeters in the woman, who had a history of cysts. They were also able to prove that the device had a comparable imaging resolution quality as standard ultrasound tools.
Sources: Science Daily; Science Advances; National Breast Cancer Foundation