英国发明能检测乳癌的“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.

不久后，胸罩除了能支撑及保护乳房外，还将起到保健的作用。目前，波尔顿大学的科学家们正在设计一种能够检测出早期乳腺癌的胸罩。

设计这款“智能”胸罩的专家们说，这种胸罩能够在恶性肿瘤形成及扩散之前发现癌症。

这款胸罩的发明者、波尔顿大学研究及创新中心的埃里阿斯．西奥里斯教授称，这款内衣还能评估乳腺癌患者正在接受治疗的疗效。

《新发现》援引西奥里斯教授的话说：“这款胸罩能发出听觉及视觉两种警告，或两者兼有。如果警告一直持续，你就得去咨询专家了。”

这款智能胸罩主要依靠内置的微波天线系统工作，这一系统很容易织进衣物。微波天线能够检测到乳腺组织中任何与乳腺癌细胞有关的非正常体温变化。

布料中的导电聚合物将信号传至一个小型电脑芯片上，信息经过芯片过滤后，再由一种专业软件来对其进行评估。如果评估结果表明有可能存在癌细胞，就会发出警报。

西奥里斯说，用这款胸罩进行诊断时，最有效的做法是将其接入电源几分钟。

英国曼彻斯特TechniTex Faraday公司的布莱恩．麦克凯西总监说：“利用先进的电子技术来检测乳腺癌是一个十分有创意的想法。”

这款“救生”内衣将在未来两年内问世。

early-stage breast cancer:早期乳腺癌