SILCHAR, Nov 2 - Screening to detect breast cancer early may become a reality if infra-red imaging is put to use, in the early stages of testing.
In a bid to facilitate studies and research based on cancer detection and based on infra-red image processing for early detection of oral and breast cancer, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Kolkata and Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre here have taken up a joint initiative for cancer detection.
As a part of the initiative, a seminar on cancer awareness and the use of infra-red technology was organised at the Banga Bhawan on Tuesday.
Dr Amit Chaudhuri, group head for ICT and Services, C-DAC, Kolkata, and chief investigator of the project said the project falls under the health informatics part of the institute and has a broad aim of providing an early detection system with research on cancer cure.
�Thermal imaging does not use any radiation, it is non-invasive, inexpensive, and is a painless procedure using a high-resolution camera aimed to obtain database for proper treatment. This process provides technology-based solution for early detection of breast cancer, which can determine the location and extent of lesion and looks for increase in temperature in any part of the breast,� Dr Chaudhuri said. He informed that the project has been approved by the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT for three years.
Dr Ravi Kannan, Director of the Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre and the co-chief investigator of the project said, �A high incidence of breast and oral cancer is mainly due to late diagnosis of potential precancerous lesions and conditions. Around 300 new cases of breast cancer from Barak Valley are dealt with per year at the cancer hospital here and out of the total cases, 70 per cent patients come in their final stages, which makes the detection and data collection cumbersome.�
Dr Kannan further mentioned that the cause(s) of breast cancer is yet to be ascertained, but it will aid the screening process.
Ashok Bandopadhyay, another co-chief investigator of the project narrated the differences between an ordinary digital camera and the high-resolution infra-red camera. He said that just like the infra-red camera catches the leopards and also intruders at night by sensing the body temperature caused by a sudden gush of blood flow, use of such cameras can detect the accurate location of the cancer-affected spot in the human body. Already, a sample of 70 such cases have been obtained where the thermal imaging process was applied, Bandopadhyay informed.
