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Image of cancer from millimeter-wave device courtesy Stevens Institute of Technology |
CANCER DIGEST – May 7, 2022 – When a crewmember of the Starship Enterprise became ill, Dr. McCoy would wave a wand-like device over the patient’s body and read the diagnosis. Now, researchers have developed a similar device that can detect skin cancer.
In a press release from the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, researchers say they can spot skin cancer with 97 percent accuracy, using a hand-held device that emits millimeter-wave rays, similar to that used for airport security.
Different materials reflect millimeter-wave rays differently to produce an image. The device under development is small and can be deployed in any clinical office.
“There are other advanced imaging technologies that can detect skin cancers, but they’re big, expensive machines that aren’t available in the clinic,” said Negar Tavassolian, in the press release.
He is director of the Bio-Electromagnetics Lab at Stevens, whose work appears in the March 23 issue of Scientific Reports. “We’re creating a low-cost device that’s as small and as easy to use as a cellphone, so we can bring advanced diagnostics within reach for everyone.”
Healthy skin reflects millimeter-wave imaging rays differently than cancerous tissue. Getting to the point of using that difference for diagnostic purposes involves refining algorithms to fuse signals captured by multiple sensors into an ultrahigh-bandwidth image, filtering out noise or useless imaging information to produce a high-resolution image of the tiniest mole or blemish.
In the Scientific Reports study, the researchers used their device to examine 136 lesions from 71 patients during actual clinical visits. Comparing the results from their device to laboratory examination of tissue samples taken from the lesions showed that the device identified 97 percent of the cancers and correctly distinguished between cancer and non-cancer 98 percent of the time.
The device yields the diagnosis in seconds, and could be used to provide doctors with extremely accurate results of a patient’s skin scan almost instantly. While it won’t eliminate the need for biopsy of suspicious lesions it will significantly reduce the number of biopsies performed for lesions that turn out to be benign.
The team’s next step is to package the integrated components into a functional handheld device that can be commercially produced for as little as $100 each. The team hopes to be able to put the device into clinicians’ hands within two years.
Sources: Stevens Institute of Technology press release and Scientific Reports, March 23, 2022
Different materials reflect millimeter-wave rays differently to produce an image. The device under development is small and can be deployed in any clinical office.
“There are other advanced imaging technologies that can detect skin cancers, but they’re big, expensive machines that aren’t available in the clinic,” said Negar Tavassolian, in the press release.
He is director of the Bio-Electromagnetics Lab at Stevens, whose work appears in the March 23 issue of Scientific Reports. “We’re creating a low-cost device that’s as small and as easy to use as a cellphone, so we can bring advanced diagnostics within reach for everyone.”
Healthy skin reflects millimeter-wave imaging rays differently than cancerous tissue. Getting to the point of using that difference for diagnostic purposes involves refining algorithms to fuse signals captured by multiple sensors into an ultrahigh-bandwidth image, filtering out noise or useless imaging information to produce a high-resolution image of the tiniest mole or blemish.
In the Scientific Reports study, the researchers used their device to examine 136 lesions from 71 patients during actual clinical visits. Comparing the results from their device to laboratory examination of tissue samples taken from the lesions showed that the device identified 97 percent of the cancers and correctly distinguished between cancer and non-cancer 98 percent of the time.
The device yields the diagnosis in seconds, and could be used to provide doctors with extremely accurate results of a patient’s skin scan almost instantly. While it won’t eliminate the need for biopsy of suspicious lesions it will significantly reduce the number of biopsies performed for lesions that turn out to be benign.
The team’s next step is to package the integrated components into a functional handheld device that can be commercially produced for as little as $100 each. The team hopes to be able to put the device into clinicians’ hands within two years.
Sources: Stevens Institute of Technology press release and Scientific Reports, March 23, 2022
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