A new device that can be added to a smartphone might be able to accurately and cheaply diagnose cancer, a technology which could be useful in remote areas, US researchers said on Monday.
Known as D3, the add-on is designed to be used by medical experts, not the general public, and so far appears as accurate as more involved and costly tests in current use, but at a price of only US$1.80 per patient.
The research is described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
“We believe that the platform we have developed provides essential features at an extraordinary low cost,” co-author and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center doctor Cesar Castro said.
D3 stands for digital diffraction diagnosis, and the system “features an imaging module with a battery-powered LED light clipped onto a standard smartphone that records high-resolution imaging data with its camera,” the study said. “With a much greater field of view than traditional microscopy, the D3 system is capable of recording data on more than 100,000 cells from a blood or tissue sample in a single image.”
The process involves adding microbeads to a sample of blood or tissue. The microbeads bind to known cancer-related molecules. The sample is then loaded into the D3 imaging module.
That data can be quickly sent via a secure, encrypted cloud service to a processing server.
Then, the presence of specific molecules, which show if cancer is present, can be detected by analyzing the diffraction patterns generated by the microbeads, the study said. Results can be returned to the doctor in minutes or hours, rather than days or weeks.
A pilot test of the system using cervical biopsy samples from 25 women who had abnormal Pap smears showed a level of accuracy that matched the current industry standard for diagnostic testing, the study said.
Another test using the D3 to analyze fine-needle lymph node biopsy samples “was accurately able to differentiate four patients whose lymphoma diagnosis was confirmed by conventional pathology from another four with benign lymph node enlargement,” the findings said.
More research is needed on a larger number of cancers to verify the preliminary findings of the new device.
However, researcher Ralph Weissleder, director of the MGH Center for Systems Biology, said he expects the device to break down many of the barriers that exist in cancer diagnosis, particularly in remote or impoverished areas.
“By taking advantage of the increased penetration of mobile phone technology worldwide, the system should allow the prompt triaging of suspicious or high-risk cases that could help to offset delays caused by limited pathology services in those regions and reduce the need for patients to return for follow-up care, which is often challenging for them,” he said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”