Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American women. In the US, breast cancer will claim an estimated 40,290 lives in 2015, and almost 232,000 patients will be newly diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, according to American Cancer Society projections. The World Cancer Research Fund International’s most recent data show that breast cancer was the most common cancer in women worldwide (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer), contributing to more than 25% of the almost 1.7 million new cases diagnosed in 2012. Additionally, Life Science Industry Research estimates the worldwide breast cancer screening population will reach almost 250 million by 2018. While there is an array of existing imaging technologies to detect breast cancer, TiaLinx Inc. is looking to be the first to offer a non-contact, non-ionizing (i.e., does not emit ionizing radiation) imaging technology with higher resolution, faster imaging, and lower capital expenditure with development of its new product, the AR60-A. (See Also see "Breast Cancer Detection: New Technologies Push the Envelope" - Medtech Insight, 1 March, 2011. and Also see "The Evolving World Of Breast Cancer Management" - Medtech Insight, 6 July, 2012..)
The AR60-A is a laptop-sized, portable radio wave mammography scanner with extremely high frequency (60 GHz) that detects the different electrical properties of abnormal cells as compared with healthy ones. TiaLinx’s wafer-scale integrated beam forming technology (i.e., signal processing technique) and its patented planar antenna arrays enable scanning with fine lateral resolution that enhances the detection and imaging of small cell clusters. Additionally, the AR60-A’s polarization system that suppresses scattering of the signal, along with the advanced ultra-wideband transmitter and receiver, provide the user with a sharp image with high-depth resolution to detect the exact location of cancer cells. During a scan, the individual sits in front of the screen of the lap top, which has electronics in it that can scan the entire area of each breast sequentially in less than four minutes. Fred Mohamadi, PhD, founder and CEO of TiaLinx explains, “The scanning process can scan through clothes and does not require any direct contact to the patient, compression, radiation, or operator skill