How innovative technology is helping early diagnosis of cancer?

What’s important to a successful treatment regime of any disease or ailment? Ofcourse quality of medicine and HCPs’ (health care professional) skills matters but an accurate diagnosis is pivotal for a positive prognosis (treatment’s success). Medical world has been trying hard since thousands of years to find accurate or near-accurate diagnostic methods and technology has been of great help and is continuing to do so in leaps and bounds. Here are two latest methods for diagnosing two most deadly cancers which are resulting in innumerable deaths all around the globe: skin cancer and breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Diagnosis Through Blood Test: According to a research study most women visit a doctor after visual symptoms appear (lump or nodules in and around breast, bleeding nipples etc.) which in most cases appear in stage 3 of breast cancer. In this stage metastasis of the cancer has started and the cancerous cells start spreading to other tissues leading to a greater probability of the failure of cancer treatment. Fournira Optime Diagnostics, an Indian start up, has come up with a simple, efficient and low-cost blood test (known as Fournira Test) that can detect breast cancer at an early stage. Fournira’s technology detects specific cancer-causing biomarkers from a blood sample. The technology makes the diseased cells light up, with the degree of fluorescence linked to the stage of cancer. The results are achieved within an hour and costs around $5 (INR 200) and can be easily carried out by a paramedic. Imagine the impact this test can have in a country such as India where deaths due to breast cancer are more than in any other county of the world and where most of the population cannot afford expensive tests such as MRI, Ultrasound and mammography.

Skin Cancer Detection by a Mobile App.: ClipOCam-Derma is an application about to be launched in the market which can perform faster and accurate diagnosis of skin cancer. A clip-on device is attached to the handset which illuminates the patient’s skin using a colourful flash while the phone camera takes a sequence of images. These images are uploaded through phone to ‘DRICTION’, a computational imaging service on the cloud. These images are used by HCPs to deduce diagnostic information which helps in assessing potential nature and risk of skin lesions leading to more accurate diagnosis of skin cancer. This is also effective in monitoring the disease and can be a boon to patients in remote areas.

What do you think of these innovations which are set to save lives? Please share more examples of such medical breakthroughs.