An innovative breast cancer imaging system which claims to eliminate patient discomfort and provide greater accuracy compared to traditional methods is being trialed at Edith Cowan University (ECU).

Scientists from the Vario Health Institute and the Electron Science Research Institute at ECU’s Joondalup campus, led by ECU Professor Rob Newton, are investigating the viability of the Near Infrared Breast Scanner (NIBS) first developed in the 1980s by China’s Daheng Group, for the Australian market.

NIBS was first developed in the 1980s by the medical division of China’s Daheng Group. It recently approached the photonics experts at ESRI with a view to exporting the technology to Australia.

"There is solid research in China that suggests NIBS can increase early detection for breast cancer and therefore, enhance survival and that of course, tweaked our interest," Professor Newton says.

"Daheng was keen to work with us on clinical trials as well as research and development programs to improve the technology for our market."

Professor Newton says the aim is to increase the system’s rate of accuracy by upgrading its intelligence and to see how NIBS can be used to improve outcomes for women’s health.

"From Daheng’s feedback, we already know that the system is much less painful than mammography, where the breast has to be compressed between two plates," he says.

"Although NIBS does not employ compression, the research out of China shows there is a very good correlation between the results from NIBS and mammography.

"The system has a much higher rate of false positives and it diagnoses as ‘suspicious’ at a much higher rate than what the incidence of cancer actually is."

Professor Newton is now keen to see if it can be used to improve the outcomes of breast cancer surgery.

"We are working with a number of oncologists to see if they can use NIBS to map the vascularisation of tumours which may help improve their surgical planning and accuracy," he says.

In addition to being painless and risk-free, NIBS is considerably cheaper to manufacture and does not need specialised radiographers.

"NIBS employs light which passes through a series of filters to get it down to a single wavelength and then uses a digital camera feeding into a computer," Professor Newton says.

"The ‘smarts’ is in the actual software which is easy to use and relatively inexpensive to replicate."

Professor Newton and his team are clear on their ultimate objective.

"Our goal is that every medical clinic in WA will have their own NIBS unit and that every female in the State will have a NIBS scan once every two years, regardless of their age or location," he says.