Diagnostic Tool Advances Population Health, Chronic Disease Prevention

University of Utah engineers are developing a diagnostic tool for breast cancer that can be used more frequently and in younger patients. According to the engineers, the tool could significantly improve population health efforts and chronic disease prevention.

Mammograms are a safe and effective way to detect breast cancer in patients. However, doctors recommend most females should start getting mammograms after the age of 40 due to the exposure to small doses of ionizing radiation during the procedure.

While the older populations are at higher risk of breast cancer, the disease can develop at any age. For example, studies have indicated that 5–7 percent of women with breast cancer are under 40.

To better serve younger populations, University of Utah electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Benjamin Sanchez-Terrones is creating a safe and painless diagnostic tool for identifying breast cancer. According to Sanchez-Terrones, the tool uses a low electrical current instead of radiation.

The research is based on the idea that cancer causes a person’s lymphatic interstitial fluid to change due to the increased presence of white blood cells and other physiological changes that happen to combat the tumor.

 “We suspect that the immune response is triggered in a person with cancer and produces lymphatic interstitial fluid that is less electrically conductive,” Sanchez-Terrones said in a press release.

To detect changes, Sanchez-Terrones, a member of the Experimental Therapeutics program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, is creating along with IONIQ Sciences a diagnostic device with two electrodes that can send a low-voltage electrical current through the body to identify lymphatic changes.

According to the press release, “The patient holds one electrode while the doctor touches different parts of the body with a handheld probe containing the second electrode. Each time the second electrode touches the skin, a painless electrical current runs from that electrode to the one the patient is holding.”

“The doctor may do this as many as 40 times, and the whole procedure takes less than 30 minutes. Measurements of the person’s conductivity are taken with each touch, and an algorithm in the device analyzes the data points and calculates a likelihood the patient has cancer or not.”

In an early clinical study conducted with 48 women, 24 with malignant breast cancer and 23 with benign lesions, researchers found the procedure was 70 percent effective at predicting whether a patient had cancer and 75 percent effective in determining if a patient didn’t have cancer.

While the new approach is not as accurate as a mammogram, which can effectively detect breast cancer in 80 to 98 percent of cases, it does as an additional diagnostic tool for younger women, improving population health and chronic disease prevention.

“The likelihood of success at fighting the cancer depends on when you act on it. If you can detect it and treat a person sooner, your chances of survival are higher,” Sanchez-Terrones stated.

Additionally, Sanchez-Terrones explained that the tool could be used on patients with dense breast tissue and breast cancer patients undergoing treatment. The tool could determine if their therapy is working for breast cancer patients and limit their radiation exposure.

“When there is no radiation from a mammogram involved, you can use this to find out how the patient is doing and perhaps change the therapy if necessary,” Sanchez-Terrones said.