Portable scanner brings new hope for breast cancer detection in M’sia

According to the Malaysian National Cancer Registry Report 2007-2011 one in 30 women will get breast cancer in her lifetime.

Early detection of breast cancer increases the chance of successful treatment and reduces the chances of death due to cancer.

The relative survival rate for breast cancer among Malaysian women was 100% for stage I, 95% for stage II, 69% for stage III and 36% for stage IV.

Thankfully, there’s new hope in breast cancer detection for Malaysian women.

Breast cancer screening has become so much easier and accessible with the new portable scanner, iBreastExam. 

The hand-held device was launched together with the Digital Breast Health Initiative in KPJ Sabah Specialist Hospital yesterday, ahead of Breast Cancer Awareness month in October.

Sabah was chosen as the forefront for the launching due to the higher percentage of late detection of breast cancer for women in the state.

According to statistics, Sabah is at 52% for late detection compared to the average Malaysian statistics for late detection which is at 40%.

The public health collaboration is a project between the government and the private sector, represented by AP Bio Resources Sdn Bhd (AP Bio), KPJ Sabah Specialist Hospital and Medisinar Klinik and Surgeri together with the non-government organization, Persatuan Ibu Tunggal Kebangsaan Malaysia (PITKM) Sabah.

iBreastExam was developed by UE Lifesciences, a company with offices in India, the U.S and in Malaysia.

It was made to be used by community workers in low resource settings to address the rising incidence of breast cancer in developing countries where women have limited or no access to breast cancer screening services.

The low-cost, easy-to-use, radiation-free, painless and wireless breast health test takes less than five minutes to complete and can be used by any doctor or health worker.

The impressive, handheld device with lots of hyphenated capabilities works through vibrating square nodes that measure tissue elasticity and detects abnormal breast tissue as small as 3 millimetres.

The device is linked to a mobile app that notifies the user if any abnormal tissue is detected, upon which an ultrasound, usually accessible even in rural areas – can be conducted.

With that, we’d like to remind all Malaysian women to get regularly screened for breast cancer!

Remember: early detection is important!