I am very interested in genetics.as you all know,we are already doing specialized testing for neurotransmitters and cyp450 enzyme activity in office to know how you metabolize medications,
Imagine a bra that you (or ladies you know) could purchase over the counter and wear for one day to screen for breast cancer. This bra would be lined with temperature sensors that monitor variants indicative of cancer. It would not emit radiation or squish sensitive parts like a mammogram. Even women with dense breast tissue could count on reliable results.
This exact invention by First Warning Systems is slated for clinical testing to determine its efficacy. “It’s a very novel, very promising technology,” says Joshua Ellenhorn, an expert in surgical oncology and a clinical professor of surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Ellenhorn is leading the trial.
For the trial, women who have an abnormal mammogram will wear the bra prior to receiving the traditional course of diagnosis and treatment, starting with a biopsy. The sensors inside the bra will collect temperature data, which will be transmitted either wirelessly or manually to a computer or device. The digital database diagnosis will then be compared with the diagnosis from the mammogram and biopsy. Only 20 percent of women with abnormal mammograms are diagnosed with malignant tumors, and this study will test the device’s accuracy at pinpointing that 20 percent.
“This is entirely new technology. There really isn’t anything like it,” Ellenhorn says. He and the company’s leaders are waiting for FDA approval to begin the trial, which they hope to complete by next summer.
“The idea that a woman could get her own home study to determine whether there’s a breast abnormality is a major advance. … Anything that makes it easier to screen for cancer, and for the particular cancers that we know that we can help, is going to be a major advance,” Ellenhorn says.
If the trial determines that this is indeed a breakthrough device, it could have implications for other forms of cancer, especially those that occur near the skin’s surface.
The development of devices like this mark a turn toward more personalized medicine. While routine home visits are a thing of the past, and while paperwork and clunky policies make it impossible to drop in for a doctor to quickly examine a symptom, mobile devices are ushering healthcare into a more patient-focused era.
Nalini Dave
