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Medical Breakthroughs: New way to get a breast cancer screening

Medical Breakthroughs: New way to get a breast cancer screening
2 months 1 week 2 days ago Friday, October 11 2024 Oct 11, 2024 October 11, 2024 1:55 PM October 11, 2024 in News

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in the United States. Now, there is a new and easier way to get screened.

The devastating diagnosis of late-stage breast cancer struck Fatma when she was just 49 years old. Watching her aunt's struggle, inspired MIT Professor Canan Dagdeviren to save others.

"I spent her last few days with her and just to comfort her, I was just sketching an electronic bra on a piece of paper," Dagdeviren said.

Over the next seven years, Dagdeviren and her team at MIT, worked on a patch that can be used by women at home to detect changes in their breast health over time.

"The wearable technology that we provide based on ultrasound technology," Dagdeviren said.

Made by a 3D printer, the plastic patch sits over a bra.

Ultrasound images are captured by a tiny tracker that moves around the patch, rotating 360 degrees, providing real-time images at multiple angles. It works on all types of breasts, including dense breasts.

"You can just wear for a few minutes, and then you can take it off and just wear your normal bra and do your daily activities," Dagdeviren said.

Dagdeviren believes the ultrasound patch could save millions of lives around the world every year.

"Back then, it was just a dream on a piece of paper. Now it's real, and we touch many people's lives and bodies," Dagdeviren said.

Half of women who are high risk develop breast cancer between their yearly mammograms.

Dagdeviren believes her ultrasound patch could not only help save their lives, but also provide women in lower income countries access to screening.

Currently, the ultrasound patch is in a larger-scale clinical trial and hopefully will be FDA approved in the next five years.

Currently, it costs $1,500 to make, but researchers believe that with mass production, the cost will be much lower.

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