Inspired by his mother’s struggle with breast cancer, an 18-year-old high school student from Mexico has designed a bra that helps detects cancer. Julian Rios Cantu decided to come up with a way that would allow effective detection of breast cancer at an early stage. The bra he created, called EVA, relies on almost 200 biosensors to map the breast’s surface and monitor for changes.
Early detection is the key to prevention in breast cancer cases. If it’s detected early, breast cancer has a survival rate of almost 100 percent.
Women are encouraged to perform monthly self-exams to ensure that they are quick to detect the signs early on. However, it’s not something that everyone remembers to do. Cantu’s solution makes sense as it incorporates the means of detection into an undergarment that most women wear on a daily basis.
EVA has 200 biosensors that map the breast’s surface and monitor for changes in size, temperature, and weight. Most self-exams are meant for mapping changes in size and weight but EVA takes it a step further by incorporating a temperature sensor.
The sensor analyzes areas of over-vascularization to discover signs of increased blood flow to a specific area which could be indicative of a tumor.
Cantu’s design has been lauded at the Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) and he has won a $20,000 prize for it.
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