Indian Woman Invents Accurate Breast Cancer Test That Requires No Touching And Saves Lives

It is no news that the chances of fighting against cancer are better if it is detected in early stages. According to research conducted by Global Cancer Observatory, India saw over 1.15 million new cancer cases, from which more than 10 percent cases were of breast cancer.

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The problem with breast cancer is the way it is detected. Not only the only effective way of detecting breast cancer is through a mammogram, but cancer also doesn¡¯t surface until the age of 45 or whenever women experience a lump on the breast and in some cases it can be too late too.

Moreover, another problem with mammograms is that since it is x-ray based, one needs to wait for at least two years before getting a followup scan.

However, researchers in India have created a novel way to detect breast cancer for women that can overcome the aforementioned challenges and derive accurate results with the help of AI.

An amazing invention

Founded by Geeta Manjunath, the scanning system is called NIRAMAI which stands for ¡°Non-Invasive Risk Assessment with MAchine Intelligence¡±. The procedure doesn¡¯t require any kind of contact for detecting abnormalities.

It uses a technique called thermography where a thermal device captures thermal images to detect the presence of cancerous cells. Before the test, the patient is made to sit in a room for 15 minutes in order to cool down their body entirely.

Once the body is cooled down, the scanner, which is placed in front of the patient at a distance of three feet scans and captures give thermal images. Since the tumour cells have high metabolic activity, they have a warmer heat signature than the whole body. This is detected by the thermal scanner. The images are then added to NIRAMAI¡¯s AI software which is later sent to an experienced radiologist for certification.

The secret sauce is Thermalytix -- the computer-driven diagnostic engine that harnesses the power of AI and ML models. If this was omitted, a radiologist would have to manually look at millions of colour data points to detect abnormalities, if any.

However, ML on Thermalytix along with its unique algorithm helps in simplifying this process while also finding deep-seated tumours that are otherwise be missed in thermography.

ET Health

Geeta said in a statement to ET Health, "AI is the core of our solution because without that a human cannot interpret so many colour points per person. The artificial intelligence which we have developed inside Niramai analyses 4 lakh temperature points per person and provides a breast health report with multiple scores telling about the health."

As of now, NIRAMAI is now available in 30 installations across 10 metropolitan cities across the country. They¡¯ve screened over 12,000 women till now and organised over 50 employee wellness camps.