To help detect breast cancer, researchers are designing a new type of bra. Intelligent, it detects tumors and makes it possible to follow the evolution of the disease remotely.
AdvertisementMammography is unpleasant and uncomfortable. However, it can detect breast cancer in women. However, if the disease is detected early enough, its treatment is more likely to be effective. "Some women refuse to do the mammogram because it's too painful, but it's so important. It really is an awful, vicious disease, which can develop very quickly if there is no follow-up," says Elijah Van Houten, professor at the University of Sherbrooke (UdeS) and researcher at the CHUS Research Center (CRCHUS).
With his colleague Alexis Lussier Desbiens from the Interdisciplinary Institute for Technological Innovation (3IT), he has been working for 20 years on a connected bra prototype that analyzes the evolution of cancerous masses in real time. A tumor alters the overall behavior of breast tissue, a change detected by sensors in Bra 2.0. They will also make it possible to identify the reappearances of cancer after a complete cure.
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This is a major step forward that will save women a painful mammogram but also trips to the hospital, which are difficult for some. This portable system can be sent by post. If it was entirely imagined, this tool is currently being designed before being validated on fake breasts in the laboratory.
Other prototypes are emerging
Every day research to fight breast cancer is progressing thanks to new technologies and intelligent robotics. The SBra or "Smart Bra" is a similar prototype designed in Franche-Comté. It is a connected bra whose sensors collect data to locate and calculate the size of tumours. We know more about the appearance of this bra in development since 2019 at the ENSMM in Besançon: "The final model will be a sports bra with a small wire, like earphones for music, connected to a box to store the results and send them", explains to France Bleu Zeina Al Masry, head of the project.
Breast cancer kills 120,000 women in France each year. Most of the time, screening is recommended every two years for women over 50. Such a light and practical device relieves women and could also encourage younger people to get tested.
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In Switzerland, a group of students from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne is working on another device. A bra that also does not use X-rays and therefore does not transmit ionizing energy. Its connected tissue uses ultrasound waves to do ultrasounds. These ultrasounds are generated by sensors powered by piezoelectricity, a technology that allows current to be generated without plugging in. They also plan that this bra will allow "the almost continuous controlled delivery of low doses of ultrasound", according to a press release, in order to restore apoptosis, the process by which cells trigger their self-destruction, to help the body to get rid of cancer cells. A prototype which should be marketed at the beginning of 2022, first of all for women who have been diagnosed with cancer.
Ladies, in the meantime, know that a clinical examination of your breasts by a health professional is recommended every year from the age of 25.
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