A Wearable Ultrasound Scanner That Fits in a Bra for Early Breast Cancer Detection

Researchers at MIT built an amazing conformable ultrasound scanner that can be inserted into a bra to detect breast cancer in its early stages, particularly in between annual mammograms. This is particularly valuable to those with a genetic tendency towards the disease and for younger women who are not yet scanning annually.

In hopes of improving the overall survival rate for breast cancer patients, MIT researchers have designed a wearable ultrasound device that could allow people to detect tumors when they are still in early stages. In particular, it could be valuable for patients at high risk of developing breast cancer in between routine mammograms.

The flexible and portable nature of the scanner and an ultrasound tracker allows the wearer to get a full view of the breast tissue at various angles.

The device is a flexible patch that can be attached to a bra, allowing the wearer to move an ultrasound tracker along the patch and image the breast tissue from different angles. In the new study, the researchers showed that they could obtain ultrasound images with resolution comparable to that of the ultrasound probes used in medical imaging centers.o