Healthcare Technology Featured Article

October 15, 2012

New Device Located in a Bra Can Help Detect Breast Cancer


A simple piece of women’s clothing is being kept close to the breast, literally, to help with early detection of breast cancer. A United States company has developed a device that can be inconspicuously kept in a brassiere that can provide vital information to help stop breast cancer.

Early detection has been determined as the best way to combat breast cancer and provides a higher success rate of survival. Even though mammograms are the most typical way of finding tumors, tumors can develop for up to six years before they can be detected in a mammogram exam. 


Image via Shutterstock

First Warning, a company based in Reno, Nevada, is hoping to have the Federal Drug Administration’s approval soon so the bra can be marketed by early 2014 in the U.S., even though the company is planning to launch the bra in Europe next year. The bra looks much like a typical sports bras worn by women and female athletes, and it measures the body temperature to help in the early detection of tumors.

There are changes in cellular temperature when a tumor is developing and these subtle changes can be detected by the sensors in the bra when the chip is downloaded into a computer. The program’s analytics will determine the temperature changes and changes in breast tissue growth; this information is then compiled and sent to your doctor for review to determine if you need to come in for a check. In three separate tests of approximately 650 women, the bra had a 90 percent success rate of detection; whereas, there is only a 70 percent success rate with traditional mammograms.

With the month of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, this news is exciting for women, as the bra will be much more comfortable to wear than going in for often painful yearly mammogram exam. The new bra by First Warning should prove to aide in the early detection of cancerous cells and help reduce the number of women that die of breast cancer each year.




Edited by Brooke Neuman
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