First Warning Systems)

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women. According to statistics from American Cancer Society, 1 of 8 women have invasive breast cancer some time during her life and 1 of 36 die from the disease, yet finding the cancer earlier can effectively decline this death rate. Experts suggest that if it’s detected early enough, the five-year survival rate of breast cancer is over 95 percent.

The BSE Bra offers women a continuous screening in their own clothes by building in sensors that measure tiny temperature changes that occur as blood vessels grow and feed tumors. 

Test results show that the BSE Bra can detect breast cancer tumors earlier and more accurately than routine mammography. Since the bra measures subtle, longitudinal changes in skin temperature, it can indicate a tumor as many as six years before a traditional screening would detect it. In over three clinical trials with 650 participants, the bra correctly identified 92.1 percent of tumors, which is much higher than the 70 percent accuracy of routine mammograms. 

The company says it plans to commercialize the system in Europe in 2013 and in the U.S. in 2014, pending FDA approval.

The video below shows detail about the development and growth of breast cancer tumors and how the First Warning Systems bra works.

 Reach reporter Evie Liu here.