No, not Halo Kitty…. this is a very cool machine that allows a new breast cancer test to be done with a pap smear, and I got to try it out today at my OB/GYN! It’s a bit ouchy, but no worse than breast feeding two kids and a lot more fun than a mammogram!
With October, the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, not too far off, it’s time again for women to renew their efforts to protect themselves against breast cancer. And for such a task, a new test is gradually gaining national attention as a critical means for early detection against the deadly disease.
Dr. Chandice Covington, former professor and Associate Dean of Academic and Clinical Affairs in the College of Nursing at WSU, conceived the innovative device, called the Halo Breast Pap Test, while at Wayne State. The device, currently licensed by the Irvine, Calif. based company NeoMatrix, is finding isolated success in parts of the West Coast and throughout the country, although not in Michigan however. In time, it has the chance to routinely give women a weapon for the war on breast cancer.
The fully automated device, which hopes to do for breast cancer what the pap smear has done for cervical cancer, delivers an easy, non-invasive, five-minute test that collects nipple aspirate fluid.
Cells in the fluid are then analyzed and determined whether to be pre-cancerous. While a mammogram can detect breast cancer up to two years before lumps can be felt, the Halo Breast Pap Test is able to detect abnormal cells several years before that.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death for woman age 35-50, according to the American Breast Cancer Foundation. Up to 70 percent of women who develop breast cancer have no identifiable risk factors, and over 80 percent of women who get breast cancer exhibit no family history of the disease.
Covington’s FDA approved machine will significantly improve the odds of discovering and fighting the deadly disease.
“Early detection of breast cancer produces better outcomes,” said Covington, who’s currently dean of the College of Nursing at the University of North Dakota. “The fluid that is collected is produced by the very cells that are cancerous or that are in early stages of pre-cancer. Early detection of pre-cancer could generate local treatments that are afforded, negating later needs to use radiation and chemotherapy for full cancer diagnoses.”
2 Responses
I had not heard about this test, so thanks for mentioning it.
It’s brand new – first I had heard of it as well.