LONDON: Scientists have developed a mobile phone-based system which they say can detect cancer more accurately than the techniques routinely used in hospitals.
Developed by a team at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the device is claimed to be up to 100% accurate at telling the difference between benign tumours and their malignant counterparts.
It also takes just an hour to make the diagnosis , meaning patients don't have to spend days or weeks anxiously waiting for test results , the researchers said.
The gadget, they believe, could "transform cancer care" by also making it easier for doctors to track how well drugs are fighting the disease in a patient's body, the Daily Mail reported.
The researchers found that in initial tests, the device was 88 per cent accurate in distinguishing cancerous stomach tumours from benign growths.
Refining the technique boosted accuracy to 100%. The device, which is likely to cost about £60 or so, consists of a smartphone connected to a miniature MRI machine.
In tests, patients with suspected stomach cancer had tiny samples of their growths removed using a fine needle.
The researchers then added in antibodies designed to bind to proteins found in stomach tumours and tiny magnetic particles designed to latch onto the antibodies.
They then used the magnet in the MRI machine to excite the molecules in the sample, making them vibrate. The more the molecules vibrate, the more likely the sample is cancerous, the researchers found.
source: TOI
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