October 2012 is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and National Mammography Day was yesterday. Needless to say this article published on Mashable last week is of high interest although a bit geeky.
According to the article:
First Warning Systems‘ Breast Tissue Screening Bra is like a continuous monitoring system for breast cancer that could be more effective than mammograms.
CNET reports that a sensor in the bra measures cell temperature changes associated with blood vessel growth that feeds tumors. Pattern recognition software then processes this data and helps to identify changes that could signal a developing tumor.
In clinical trials with 650 women, the smart bra has been able to detect the presence of tumors 6 years before traditional imaging systems can. It also showed a 92.1% level of accuracy at correctly classifying them, which is much higher than routine mammograms (70%).
Sounds great, isn’t it? First Warning Systems plans to commercialize the system in Europe next year and in the U.S. in 2014, pending regulatory approval. We know early detection of breast cancer is important since each year, 1 000 000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer…