A new radiowave-based scanner aims to detect breast cancer earlier, more safely, and without the pain of X-ray mammography. The project, called MARIA, is developing a non-invasive, non-ionising technology that uses radiowaves to image breast tissue, avoiding the radiation exposure and discomfort that discourage many women from attending regular screening. Current X-ray mammography has limited sensitivity and specificity, meaning it can miss tumours or flag non-cancerous tissue, and late diagnosis remains the biggest cause of breast cancer death—when a tumour is already palpable, five-year survival drops to 15 percent. MARIA is designed to work for women of all ages, including younger women with denser breast tissue, whom mammography serves poorly. If successful, the technology could make routine screening faster, more comfortable, and safer, potentially increasing attendance and catching cancers earlier. The project is not fundamental science; it is a direct engineering and clinical development effort to bring a specific diagnostic device to market.
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How many females can you count within your family (if you are one, include yourself)? Grandmothers, mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, nieces, sisters in-law – the list goes on. Think wider: how many females are part of your group of friends? If the answer is 8 or more, statistics say that 1 of them will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer has been the biggest cause of death in women. It could be you or a loved one – a wife, a mother, a daughter. Breast cancer is relentless, brutal and it can come without warning. The biggest reason for breast cancer death is late diagnosis. Sadly, most breast cancer patients are diagnosed at a late stage when the cancer is well established with a palpable tumour size. This is partly due to the inherent deficiencies of the current diagnostic technology X-ray mammography (XRM) which has relatively low sensitivity and specificity for tumours over non-cancerous tissue, which reduces the 5-year survival rates to a mere 15%. Furthermore, XRM is associated with a number of additional disadvantages: exposes the patient to ionizing radiation, is an uncomfortable procedure which can discourage attendance, and is relatively expensive. The MARIA™ project will develop and launch a non-invasive and a non-ionizing radiowave-based technology for the early, accurate, fast, comfortable and safe detection of breast cancer in women of all ages. Keywords/phrases – diagnostics, breast cancer, radiowaves
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