A new method for detecting and treating breast cancer

Breast cancer screening with mammography

Current methods of treating breast cancer

Electrical bioimpedance is a marker of cancer

Our Mission

BreastCancerInitiative.com is focused on the development of a new method for detecting and treating breast cancer. Our core technology uses a single and relatively simple non-invasive device that initially operates in its detection mode to locate the breast cancer and then, using a critical part of the information provided in this process, switches to its therapeutic mode to eradicate the cancer.

Breast Cancer Screening

X-ray mammography is the "gold standard" for breast cancer screening. Mammography accounts for a reduction in breast cancer mortality of about 20%-30% for women of age 50-69, and of about 17% in women of age 40-49.

Limitations of Mammography

Mammography fails to detect 1 of 6 breast cancers. Furthermore, when the mammogram is read as suspicious of cancer, follow-up breast biopsy does not show a cancer in 80% of these patients, causing unnecessary stress and expense. In addition, the breast compression required to produce a good mammographic image can be painful, and there is exposure to small levels of X-ray radiation.

The National Cancer Institute, setting a balance between benefits and risks, recommends that women age 40 and older should have mammograms every 1 to 2 years.

Treating Breast Cancer

Cancer is characterized by a significant increase of cell division compared to that of normal tissue. This difference in the rate of division is the basis of current methods of treating cancer. High energy radiation and many chemotherapy drugs work by interfering with the cell division cycle. Unfortunately, some types of healthy cells divide as rapidly as cancer cells and are badly damaged as well. Such cells are found in bone marrow, the lining of the digestive tract, reproductive organs, and hair follicles. Some significant side effects of chemotherapy or irradiation is hair loss, anemia, and susceptibility to infection. The damage to healthy cells limits the extent of radiation or the drug dose and therefore limits the effectiveness of these treatments.

Our Core Technology

Current within tissue is due to the movement of ions. The opposition to this movement is called electrical bioimpedance. Our core technology is based on changes in bioimpedance characteristics of tissue that have been documented to occur when normal tissue undergoes malignant change. These changes serve as a marker for the presence of cancer.

BCI Breast Cancer Detection

Electrical bioimpedance is measured by applying a very small, imperceptible current between any two electrodes of a breast electrode array, for example, as developed previously by our group and shown to the right.

Our innovative technology has advanced, and we can now measure electrical bioimpedance with previously unattainable detail and precision to produce a 3-dimensional breast image such as illustrated right. The diagnostic accuracy of our new, patent-pending technology has the potential to equal or exceed that of digital mammography. A sample output, obtained from a patient with a malignant breast tumor is shown, with normal breast color-coded yellow and the malignancy colored green.

BCI Breast Cancer Eradication

BreastCancerInitiative (BCI) will be testing a new, patent-pending technology for eradication of breast cancer called Electrical Resonant Destruction. One of the bioelectrical tissue characteristics obtained as part of BCI cancer detection is tissue electrical resonant frequency. Energy applied to a structure at its resonant frequency will cause it to vibrate increasingly then uncontrollably if the applied energy is large enough. Since cell membranes have oppositely charged inner and outer surfaces, an alternating electric current will cause stress displacement of the membrane.

For cancer eradication, sufficient electrical energy is delivered via breast electrodes at the resonant frequency of the cancerous tissue to make membrane stress oscillations increase until cellular destruction occurs. The electrodes selected are those which bioimpedance measurement showed changes indicative of malignancy in the breast tissue underlying them.

Benefits of the New Technology

For Breast Cancer Screening

  • Pain-free, no breast compression.
  • Safe, no radiation.
  • Results are automatic and immediate—No waiting.
  • Convenience—The test can be performed in the family doctor’s office during an annual checkup.

For Breast Cancer Treatment

  • Cell destruction is limited to the diseased area of the breast.
  • Unlike chemotherapy, there is no spread of toxicity to rapidly dividing cells, e.g. in the bone marrow and hair follicles
  • Treatment is non-invasive, rapid, with no discomfort.
  • Treatment is safe, there is no ionizing radiation.

Who Are We?

BreastCancerInitiative.com is built around a core group of physicians, engineers, and programmers who have over 150 years of combined expertise in product development, manufacturing, clinical trials, and marketing in the high technology medical device field, including proven success in the use of bioimpedance for detection of breast cancer. Some of the more than 20 medical centers participating in our prior multinational clinical trial to assess the validity of bioimpedance for the detection of breast cancer are shown on the right.*

We have developed many ground-breaking medical devices in use throughout the world. All share the same attributes: they are based on proven biophysical principles and incorporate innovative engineering design. We are dedicated to the task of pursuing this new and promising direction for the detection and cure of breast cancer.