Smart bras could speed up breast cancer diagnosis

A smart bra device developed in Nigeria can detect breast cancer early, and its inventors say it could save African women the time they have to travel long distances to get screening services

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women in sub-Saharan Africa, with 129,000 new cases in 2020

Robotic engineer Komisula Bolarinwa, who developed the smart bra, hopes it will help address barriers to early detection of the disease

"My dear mother died of breast cancer at University College Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2017 due to a late diagnosis," said Bolarinwa, founder of Nextwear Technology, a wearable technology company in Abuja, Nigeria.

"In her ward, I saw women of all ages, even teenagers, moaning in the pain of breast cancer

Bolarinwa said women can use the device safely from the comfort of their home to check their breasts regularly

"If they could find out that they had cancer early, then they would be safe and many people would not have to die," she explained

The inventors hope the device will be available in July after four years of exploration

"We did a trial locally and it was about 70 percent accurate

Developed using ultrasound technology, the smart bra is rechargeable, battery-powered, and comes with a mobile and web app that shows the location of tumors on the breast, she explained

"The results will show whether the tumor is benign (harmless) or malignant (harmful)," Bolarinwa added

Her dream is to see many African women rescued from breast cancer, Bolarinwa said, adding that her invention could ease the stress of women traveling long distances to cities for cancer screenings

She said the invention has been approved by Nigeria's Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Communications Commission

Bolarinwa said her team will consider affordability when smart bras are finally made available to the market, but delays in shipping raw materials from overseas and a lack of funding have been a challenge

Funding for the project comes from the company's first product, a global positioning system (GPS) necklace device that alerts the wearer's family and friends of their movements to help deal with insecurity in Nigeria

According to data released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in December 2020, breast cancer has surpassed lung cancer as the most common cancer worldwide
.

Diagnosing the disease at an advanced stage greatly reduces the likelihood of curative treatment, but many African women experience delays in diagnosis, according to a WHO report on breast cancer outcomes in the region
.

Francis Durosinmi-Etti, a professor of radiation therapy and oncology at Lagos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, said technology such as smart bras could help change that
.

"It's a good idea," he told this site
.
"I may have heard of smart bras in 2015, but it's not designed to detect cancer
.
The ultrasound technology behind smart bras sounds good because it doesn't produce any radiation
.
"