Low Cost Breast Cancer Pre Screening Device

It is the ?Development of a handheld optical device for preclinical breast cancer pre-screening in Pakistani Women at early stage? because it is an alarming state for Pakistan to be Asia?s no. 1 victim of Breast Cancer. Losing a mother to a disease which is considered as taboo if one talked about it

Project Title

Low Cost Breast Cancer Pre Screening Device

Project Area of Specialization

Wearables and Implantable

Project Summary

It is the “Development of a handheld optical device for preclinical breast cancer pre-screening in Pakistani Women at early stage” because it is an alarming state for Pakistan to be Asia’s no. 1 victim of Breast Cancer. Losing a mother to a disease which is considered as taboo if one talked about it, is tragic. Our advisor mother died of cancer last year, and he was doomed as she couldn't know about it at an earlier stage. This Made us realized that each year 40,000 women dies because of breast cancer in Pakistan while Pink Ribbon stats shows that 1/9 women is at risk of having breast cancer. Making 12 million population at risk, who can be someone’s mother or daughter? But don't you worry, because there are breast cancer specialists who say that cancer can be cured if found at an early stage. And that is our goal, to provide early detection using ‘optical sensing’. The current technologies like MRI and Mammography are ineffective due to limited access, high price, and side effects. Our device has three major advantages over the latter that it is low-cost, handy & safe. For now, we are in testing stage in collaboration with colleagues at Cancer Care Hospital, Lahore. Our solution involves safe on body examination using NIR as breast tissues absorb the light better. A prescreening device which can be used as prognosis of the disease will prove to be valuable in the medical health industry and for that purpose we are developing a low-cost & portable device for early screening of breast cancer in women.

Project Objectives

Isn’t it a tragedy that we are securing top rankings in things that are fatal for the inhabitants of our country?  It’s time we find some amends for that. Pakistan has lost, not just lives but families by being on top in death rates due to breast cancer in Asia. That’s the problem that every year we lose 40,000 women due to the disease, henceforth we need to find a fix and we are up for that with a motto that “every life matters”. Our purpose is saving lives of mothers, daughters and sisters through awareness and solution too. It is our aim to improve the health sector of our country with innovative-technology based solutions. As of now, the conventional screening/ diagnostic methods have numerous drawbacks like unsafe ionizing radiations, low specificity which limits the availability of standard mammography equipment in under-privileged areas and quite expensive to be utilized  for mass-screening. The result is that not all women at risk of breast cancer undergo a breast screening at hospital or General Physician (GP) clinic, which makes the cancer diagnosis delayed up to a level where treatment options become very limited. Most of these new diagnosis are mid or late-stage cancers and the treatments are least effective due to late diagnosis. Our breast cancer screening device, based on optical sensing, is an efficient-low cost solution which can be affordable enough to be used at any hospital or GP clinic.

• The developed prototype would offer two main advantages: zero-risk for patient and low-cost for adaption in massive breast-cancer screening campaigns, GP clinics and hospitals.
• To design, simulate and implement a prototype for optical sensing system for breast cancer pre-screening.
• To conduct pre-clinical trials on the phantoms developed in-house, and initial clinical trials in collaboration with partners.
• To commercialize the developed breast cancer pre-screening device (either through licensing the IP or by launching a Start-up) in massive breast-cancer screening campaigns, GP clinics and hospitals.
• To contribute towards capacity building in biomedical technology development in Pakistan in collaboration with our industry/ external partners.
• Most importantly the objectives of this project address the UNDP SDG-3 (Good Health and Well-being) directly, and SGDs-5, 8, 9, 10 &17 indirectly.

Project Implementation Method

The steps followed during the development of this prototype are given as

1. First Phase started with the complete literature review of optical applications in biotechnology.
2. Visited hospitals and clinics for doctors’ feedback, patients’ feedback. This was done to understand the flaws in existing techniques that are used for early detection. The insights were important for future commercialization.
3. The first prototype was built through different iterations of circuitry and tested it on Phantom (having properties like breast).
4. We managed to avail Fat and tumor cells for initial testing from DG Khan Medical College.
5. Optimization of the device wouldn’t have been possible with the use of local sensors, we had to import better sensor and sources for better results on the tissues collected.
6. Started collaboration with hospitals and Cancer Foundations for human testing.
7. Hopefully, the last step is commercialization of the device (after the approval from DRAP and Bioethics Committee) to create impact in the society.

Benefits of the Project

The device is an outcome of thorough research and effort. It was kept in mind that how this project might benefit the community and the industrial sector. This idea of prescreening of breast cancer using a safe device is unique. The innovative solution being developed has not been implemented by any one in Pakistan, whereas this device can also be patented. The industrial outcomes of this projects lies in it simple design and circuitry. In Pakistan, there is no such commercial or otherwise solution available to date, and hence this product will be first of its kind, indigenously developed and commercialized in Pakistan. This is a sophisticated design which, with little modification, can be replicated for industrial mass production. It is primarily designed for Hospitals and General Physician clinics Pakistan. The areas with no or little access to the current solutions will also have this device at their doorstep for them to stay aware of their breast health. Whereas this will alleviate the pain, patient has to go through due to the delay in diagnosis of the disease. The mass production of imaging product relies on the assembly of commercial-on-the-shelf hardware electronic components and the in-house simplistic imaging software developed by us. The product has a high potential to attract investors from existing progressive businesses for commercialization of the product only after the pre-clinical and clinical tests have been finalized.

• This project aims to solve current local issue, in early and fast screening of breast cancer in women at local GP clinics/ hospitals.
• This project will be first of its kind in Pakistan that will result in an Optical prescreening prototype development.
• The developed Optical Sensing system will open doors in the field of bio-photonics hence enhancing the capability of biomedical technology community.
•  The design of the device and the impact is able to attract the investment from national and international biomedical technology companies.
•  This project will lead to the development of a startup company.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Optical Applications are has emerged as a suitable alternative diagnostic method in many biomedical applications. Whereas we are using it as a safe sensing and diagnostics technique for early detection of breast cancer that can be used repeatedly in pre-screening campaigns because it does not use ionizing radiations. This project aims to address the issue by building a low-cost, practical and potentially commercializable optical solution for breast-cancer pre-screening in high-risk population. The final deliverable of this project is to build a complete prototype of Optical device system including 

1. Breast phantom to mimic the actual breast tissue and tumor properties
    
2. Suitable frequency-range for best optimal results, Optimizing Sensors  for transmitting and receiving the NIR light
    
3. Simplistic Algorithm for cancer detection

The prototype will operate on low current whereas it will have two sources – one detector configuration for detection of the cancer cells. The device will be able for the initial testing at local clinic whereas it won’t have any side effects as the heat generated by the LEDs light is optimized to stay below the thermal limit. It is important to know that we are focused on 1st stage cancer, having cancer size around 0.5 cm2. This is a great measure of success for such a device in this cost with no hazardous effect on the patient. 

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Type of Industry

IT , Medical , Health

Technologies

Wearables and Implantables, Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Reduced Inequality, Partnerships to achieve the Goal

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com