英國發明能檢測乳癌的“智能胸罩”

Japan's turned-to-shopping bag bra

Soon, a bra, universally used to provide support and comfort to the breasts, might offer health benefits, for scientists at the University of Bolton are developing a bra that can detect if the person wearing it is suffering from early-stage breast cancer.

Experts working on the "smart" bra say that it will be able to spot cancer before a tumor can develop and spread.

Professor Elias Siores, inventor of the bra, who works in the Centre for Research and Innovation at the University of Bolton, also claims that the undergarment will be able to assess the effectiveness of any breast cancer treatment its wearer is undergoing.

"It could emit two warnings, audible or visual or both. If the warning persists, you would see a specialist,” Discovery News quoted Siores, as saying.

The smart bra works by using a microwave antennae system, which can easily be woven into fabric. The antennae pick up any abnormal temperature changes in the breast tissue, which are linked to breast cancer cells.

Conducting polymers in the fabric would transmit the signals to a small computer chip that would filter the information. Specialized software would assess the information and sound an alarm if conditions indicated the likely presence of cancerous cells.

Siores said that an efficient way to use the bra would be to wear it while plugged into a power supply for a few minutes during diagnosis.

"This is a truly innovative idea to use some pretty advanced electronics for the detection of breast cancer," said Brian McCarthy, director of TechniTex Faraday, Manchester, U.K..

The lifesaving undergarment will be manufactured within the next two years.

不久後，胸罩除了能支撐及保護乳房外，還將起到保健的作用。目前，波爾頓大學的科學家們正在設計一種能夠檢測出早期乳腺癌的胸罩。

設計這款“智能”胸罩的專家們說，這種胸罩能夠在惡性腫瘤形成及擴散之前發現癌症。

這款胸罩的發明者、波爾頓大學研究及創新中心的埃裏阿斯•西奧里斯教授稱，這款內衣還能評估乳腺癌患者正在接受治療的療效。

《新發現》援引西奧里斯教授的話說：“這款胸罩能發出聽覺及視覺兩種警告，或兩者兼有。如果警告一直持續，你就得去諮詢專家了。”

這款智能胸罩主要依靠內置的微波天線系統工作，這一系統很容易織進衣物。微波天線能夠檢測到乳腺組織中任何與乳腺癌細胞有關的非正常體溫變化。

布料中的導電聚合物將信號傳至一個小型電腦芯片上，信息經過芯片過濾後，再由一種專業軟件來對其進行評估。如果評估結果表明有可能存在癌細胞，就會發出警報。

西奧里斯說，用這款胸罩進行診斷時，最有效的做法是將其接入電源幾分鐘。

英國曼徹斯特TechniTex Faraday公司的布萊恩•麥克凱西總監說：“利用先進的電子技術來檢測乳腺癌是一個十分有創意的想法。”

這款“救生”內衣將在未來兩年內問世。

early-stage breast cancer:早期乳腺癌