'Laptop' tracks breast cancer
2003-10-20 10:03
Cape Town - A new device that can predict malignant breast tumours with 90% accuracy is now available in South Africa.
However, it's been greeted with scepticism in some circles.
The device, which looks like a big laptop computer, detects the malignant tumours by "listening" to electric signals from cells.
Terry Wickham, executive of the company importing the device from the United States, says malignant cells have a much-stronger signal than other cells.
Ten electrodes aimed at detecting the signals, are placed on the breast and in the vicinity of suspect tissue.
Wickham says: "It works in a similar way to an ECG, but it's more sensitive."
With the help of a formula calculating the tissue's electrical signal, the patient's age and her menstrual cycle, the possible nature of the tissue is established.
Women normally have to undergo X-rays and sonar tests to detect a tumour, followed by tissue tests to establish if the tumour is malignant or benign.
Wickham says this new device eliminates unnecessary tissue tests.
The costs of such a cancer test may be less than R400. The machine costs about R250 000.
Five mobile units are to be put in use next year to service low-income groups.
Professor Justus Apffelstaedt, associate professor in surgery at the University of Stellenbosch, says he's sceptical, because "the golden rule to take breast cancer images remain mammograms".