This High Tech Bra May Help Detect Cancer Earlier Than Standard Screenings

An ultrasound bra developed by MIT researchers could help screen for cancer while you go about your day. Here’s how the technology works, plus how it may revolutionize cancer detection.

You might be surprised to hear that your underwear could help detect cancer. If you try the new high tech bra created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers, that might be the case.

The garment features a wearable ultrasound device for breast cancer screening. It can be used between regular mammograms — or anytime — and may be able to help detect breast cancer earlier than current standards of care.

Here’s a look at this wearable breast cancer screening device, including how it works, how it may help with early detection, and what it brings to the breast cancer care space.

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What is the wearable ultrasound bra?

This wearable breast cancer screening device is a portable, miniaturized ultrasound scanner.

It includes the following:

• Specially made bra: The seamless, soft-fabric bra is currently designed for cup sizes A through DD.
• Breast patch: The 3D-printed, flexible, honeycomb-like device conforms to the breast and attaches to the bra.
• Ultrasound scanner: The scanner is fitted into a small tracker that takes wearer-generated ultrasound images of breast tissue.

The bra is fitted with magnets that hold the ultrasound tracker in place. The patch’s symmetrical design allows for left and right side imaging.

A series of openings cut into the fabric of the bra aligns with a similar series of openings in the patch, ensuring that the patch has direct contact with the skin for effective imaging.

Among other uses, the wearable can:

• provide supplemental at-home monitoring between routine breast cancer screenings
• produce image sets that can be easily replicated and compared for long-term monitoring
• track responsiveness to cancer treatment

How is the bra used?

First, you put on the bra and attach the breast patch. You then move the ultrasound tracker along a guided pathway set into the patch. The tracker then takes a series of ultrasound images as you rotate it in a full circle.

Once images are taken, you reverse the bra and reattach the patch to repeat the imaging process on the other breast.

The process produces extensive ultrasound imaging of the entire breast. You can take scans at home or wherever you happen to be without the discomfort and pain of conventional breast-clamping mammograms.

Plus, anyone can do an ultrasound with the device.

It’s designed to be used directly by the wearer themselves, with no need for a mammogram technician, doctor, or staff during imaging.

How does the technology work?

The device relies on a miniaturized ultrasound scanner similar to that used in conventional ultrasound imaging. This involves sending sound waves into the body, which are then recorded on a computer that creates ultrasound imaging from the signals.

MIT researchers developed a new technology for their wearable ultrasound using a novel material that performs better and requires less power. This allowed researchers to miniaturize the ultrasound scanner, shrinking it from a large imaging machine to a tiny scanner small enough to fit into a bra.

Currently, images generated by the wearable can only be viewed by hooking up the wearable to a conventional ultrasound machine after scanning. However, researchers are developing a phone-size version of the imaging system that would enable wearers and doctors to view scans more easily.

Does the bra produce reliable ultrasounds?

In 2023, the team of researchers behind the wearable published an initial small-scale study demonstrating the wearable could be used to identify multiple small tumors.

The study concludes that the device can obtain high resolution images captured at sufficient depths to effectively detect tumors. This means the wearable is likely comparable to conventional ultrasound machines in imaging centers.

Researchers who conducted a 2023 study unaffiliated with the MIT project agree, though they also note that the wearable is unable to cover a few shallow areas closer to the skin right now.

How can the bra help prevent breast cancer?

Here are just some of the ways this wearable could improve the breast cancer care space.

Detect cancer earlier

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when breast cancer is detected in the earliest stages, the survival rate is almost 98%. When breast cancer is detected in the latest stages, the survival rate is around 31%.

This wearable holds promise for helping boost early detection. How? By providing a user-friendly, convenient, portable, and accessible method of cancer screening, capable of producing imaging comparable to conventional ultrasound machines.

Plus, the wearable can be used repeatedly, allowing people to collect huge amounts of data on their own breasts.

This means that radiologists and healthcare professionals would be able to compare a flow of imaging over time rather than mammograms conducted years apart, which could also facilitate early detection.

Increase interval breast cancer detection

Interval breast cancers are tumors that are detected between routine screenings — after the last routine mammogram but before the next scheduled one.

According to the National Cancer Institute, interval breast cancers tend to be larger, more aggressive, and more advanced than tumors found during routine screenings.

By enabling people to easily obtain high quality, reliable ultrasound imaging more frequently, healthcare professionals may be able to detect interval breast cancer earlier and intervene more quickly.

For people at high risk of breast cancer, this wearable could provide crucial supplemental screening between routine mammograms.

Address disparities in cancer care

According to the American Cancer Society’s 2023 cancer statistics report, breast cancer is among the cancers with the widest racial disparity in mortality rates in the United States.

Data from 2022 shows that Black women experience breast cancer more than other groups. They also experience longer intervals between routine mammograms and between receiving abnormal results and being given follow-up appointments.

Additionally, Black women have the highest rates of death of any group, regardless of the stage at diagnosis.

Both reports suggest this disparity is largely due to unequal access to prevention, early detection, and treatment.

The new wearable may address some of these racial disparities by providing easier access to early detection and helping improve interval cancer detection.

The wearable may also increase access to cancer screening for people who need it most. Because it’s small and highly portable, it could be easily integrated into mobile clinic settings.

The wearable may help make screening more accessible to people without insurance by eliminating the need to pay for hospital appointments, ultrasound fees, and travel to imaging centers.

However, the extent of the wearable’s cost savings remains to be seen.

Where can you get the ultrasound bra?

The wearable device is not yet available because the technology is so new.

MIT researchers are currently conducting clinical trials to test for safety and effectiveness. Once established, they may get Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to put their wearable on the market.

The takeaway

MIT researchers recently developed a miniaturized ultrasound scanner that fits into a bra.

This wearable breast cancer screening device uses cutting-edge ultrasound technology to produce imaging comparable to conventional ultrasound machines.

Advances like this may make breast cancer detection possible much earlier, as well as more accessible to those who need it most.