Handheld Device Shown to Detect Cancer

A handheld device based on military technology may represent a portable, quick, noninvasive way to detect cancer.

The lightweight plastic baton, called TRIMprob (tissue resonance interaction method), is similar to the metal detectors used to examine airline passengers. The baton contains an antenna that generates an electromagnetic field at very low power, interacting with tissues at the microscopic level. A computer linked to the probe analyzes the amount of interference at different frequencies and displays results in real-time in an easily understandable graphical format. The TRIMprob analyzes the condition of tissues and organs, detects and localizes pathologies ranging from inflammatory conditions to cancer, and finds them at an early stage. The baton can be used while patients are dressed and comfortable, providing immediate results.

In clinical trials at the San Carlo Borromeo Hospital in Milan (Italy), TRIMprob was able to predict prostate tumors in 93% of cases that were later confirmed by biopsy. Trials are now underway in other Italian hospitals for breast, lung, colon-rectal, liver, and stomach abnormalities.

TRIMprob is based on patented technology developed by physicist Clarbruno Vedruccio for Galileo Avionica, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica S.p.A., (Rome, Italy; www.finmeccanica.it), Italy's largest defense and aerospace group. After designing a detector for nonmetallic land mines and plastic explosives, Dr. Vedruccio decided he might be able to locate diseased tissue in people. When tests were carried out, they were very encouraging.

"In a short period of time and with a noninvasive procedure, we can discover or exclude a neoplastic prostate pathology. It is particularly useful for mass screenings as the first approach to assess nonrisk patients from those who need more refined searches,” said Dr. Ulrico Jacobellis, chief of the department of urology at the Polyclinic Hospital (Bari, Italy), affiliated with the Lahey Clinic in Burlington (MA, USA). Dr. Jacobellis is also an adjunct professor of urology at the Tufts University School of Medicine.




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