Handheld millimetre-wave diagnostic device could cut biopsies

According to SIT, around 30 benign lesions are currently biopsied for every case of skin cancer that is found.

“We aren’t trying to get rid of biopsies,” said Negar Tavassolian, director of the Bio-Electromagnetics Laboratory at Stevens. “But we do want to give doctors additional tools and help them to make better decisions.”

The team’s device uses millimetre-wave imaging to scan a patient’s skin. Healthy tissue reflects millimetre-wave rays differently than cancerous tissue, so it is theoretically possible to spot cancers by monitoring contrasts in the rays reflected from the skin. To bring that approach into clinical practice, the researchers used algorithms to fuse signals captured by multiple different antennas into a single ultrahigh-bandwidth image, reducing noise and quickly capturing high-resolution images of even the tiniest mole or blemish.

Spearheaded by Amir Mirbeik Ph.D. ’18, the team used a tabletop version of their technology to examine 71 patients during real-world clinical visits, and found their methods could accurately distinguish benign and malignant lesions in a few seconds. Using their device, Tavassolian and Mirbeik could identify cancerous tissue with 97 per cent sensitivity and 98 per cent specificity.