Scientists develop smart phone device that lets users detects their own cancer tumors

Saturday, April 09, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: smart phones, cancer tumors, health news

(NaturalNews) First it was STDs, now it is chronic diseases. Scientists, this time from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, have come up with a new smart phone device that they say can successfully detect the presence of cancerous tumors and determine whether or not they are malignant. In as little as an hour, the detector can analyze tissues and display their cancer status right on the screen, which could eventually eliminate the need for lengthy and invasive biopsies.

The Boston Globe reports that the $200 smart phone add-on is capable of scanning tissue, determining if a cancer is harmful or benign, and coming up with an analysis, all without the need for skin removal or even a doctor. And according to a paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the device is successful more than 95 percent of the time in tests -- which is 14 percent more accurate than current analysis methods.

Dr. Cesar Castro, an oncologist at MGH and co-author of the paper, says that further clinical testing is required to verify that the device is fully capable of being used in the clinical setting. He and his team also hope to discover if the method can be used across the spectrum to detect other types of cancer. If determined to be successful, the technology could go on to supplement, or perhaps even supercede, conventional detection methods.

"At the end of the day there are a lot of good technologies out there that are very promising on the bench side," said Castro. "[T]he key is how to translate it into the clinic."

Smart phone devices and applications are redefining the way medical diagnoses are made in other areas, too. Back in November, the UK Guardian reported that the UK Clinical Research Collaboration is developing a chip device for phones that allows users to personally test themselves for STDs right on their phones (https://www.naturalnews.com/030329_mobile_pho...).

Sources for this story include:

http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/ar...