Mobile Cancer Detector

Smartphones are changing the face of medicine by giving doctors the ability to monitor everything from glucose levels to heart activity without the need for a patient visit. But recent advances can now turn a smartphone into a mobile colposcope, a breakthrough that will allow physicians to better diagnose and treat women in developing countries where cervical cancer is a leading cause of death.

The system uses a technique called Polarization Difference Spectral Measurement in which the tissue is illuminated with polarized light that is reflected back from multiple layers and components both at the surface and deep below the surface. Analysis of the reflected light reveals information on different structural patterns as well as composition (including some biomarkers) of the tissue.

The $400 device can transform virtually any smartphone into a cancer screening tool, and the company has plans to deploy pilot units in six developing countries where up to 85 percent of women have no access to cervical cancer screening, and over 250,000 women per year die from the disease, which, if detected within the first five years, can be treated effectively and inexpensively.