A research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it has developed a non-invasive technology that can help detect melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, by up to six months earlier than usual.
The team hopes its high-speed and high-resolution optical coherence tomography scanner can receive medical certification by as early as 2017 so that it can be put into clinical use as soon as possible.
Diagnosing cancer relies primarily on observing tissues and cells, and that is where the scanner can be useful and time-saving, National Taiwan University pathologist Shun Chia-tung (孫家棟).
If combined with an endoscope, the technology can also help detect diseases such as colon cancer at an early stage, Shun said at a press conference in Taipei.
The NTU research team is headed by Huang Sheng-lung (黃升龍), a professor with the university’s Department of Electrical Engineering, who said the technology provides quick access to dynamic images of body tissues and blood cells, helping doctors make early diagnoses without a biopsy.
The scanner is non-invasive and has a resolution of 0.01mm and a nearly 90 percent detection rate, Huang said.
It also takes much less time than a regular biopsy, for which patients usually need to wait up to a day for the test results, Huang said.
The research, which has gone on for more than a decade, has been tested in clinical trials at teaching hospitals around the nation. Exclusive rights have been sold to a start-up company for nearly NT$30 million (US$962,371).
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
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