Sensing glove could improve diagnosis of prostate cancer

The first planned prototype will be a glove incorporating sensors, hopefully followed by an entirely autonomous robotic probe at some stage in the future.

Researchers from Heriot-Watt University have received a £400,000 grant from the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) to develop the technology, after demonstrating the basic principles in the lab.

They experimented on prostate biopsies — both malignant and benign — performing mechanical tests on the tissue with a specialised hydraulic-rig setup. Crucially, the results showed that mechanical output correlated strongly with the biochemical signals that underpin cancer development.  

‘One of our key innovations is that we’re making a measurement of dynamic mechanical properties, as opposed to static mechanical properties,’ said project lead Prof Bob Reuben of Heriot-Watt.

‘The palpation isn’t just press once and get the force-displacement curve; it’s essentially a vibratory measurement and out of that we get a dynamic modulus that varies with frequency — so, potentially, there’s more information in that than you would get in a single elastic modulus.’