Drexel University researcher Wan Shih had already been working on developing a device that would enable earlier detection of breast cancer for seven years when she was diagnosed with the disease last November.
Nearly a year later and cancer free, Shih has maintained her steady and focused scientific touch, and realizes that she is in a truly unique position.
“I feel like what I say might be more convincing after being a survivor,” says Shih. “Knowing what’s involved in diagnostics and treatments, until you’re the one undertaking those procedures, you don’t realize how difficult it is.
“As a scientist, in terms of empathy for other patients, I think I do have that.”
Shih also has what appears to be a game-changing way of detecting breast cancer among the estimated 30 percent of women over 40 with mammographically dense-tissue breasts. The associate professor in Drexel’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, along with Dr. Wei-Heng Shih and Ari D. Brooks, expect to develop a portable, radiation-free, breast-scanning device that is not only capable of locating small tumors of any type, but also able to predict tumor malignancy.
The device will be positioned as an early screening tool that would supplement mammography, or be used as a primary screening tool in countries like China and India, where mammography isn’t readily available due to cost. Based on piezoelectric fingers (an elastic and shear modulus sensor), the device has positively identified a 3-millimeter tumor previously missed by mammography, ultrasound and the physician’s palpation in evaluations on tumor specimens.
Shih’s team recently received a $200,000 grant and a year of business advice from the University City Science Center’s QED proof-of-concept program. Shih says she hopes to have a prototype to test on people by the end of 2010.
“The major engineering task is to shorten the measurement time,” she says. “Our goal is to finish screening a patient in 10 minutes.”
Source: Wan Shih, Drexel University
Writer: Joe Petrucci