January 15, 2024

Reggie Dao

11th Grade

Fountain Valley High School

When we hear the word “cancer”, realization dawns upon us, as we constantly lose our close friends and loved ones due to this terrible disease that takes advantage of our cells and rips the life out of them. But as time progresses and we’ve gotten to know the tactics of this condition, many entrepreneurs and scientists have found ways to combat the severity of this disease. When cancer first enters the body and spreads cells outrageously to other parts, the individual with the disease is unaware that they’re even experiencing it. The chances of survival are higher when a patient figures out its arrival early, rather than finding out in the later stages of their body undergoing the condition. New inventions that are incorporated into our daily lives make it easier to tell if we’re infected, from a simple toothbrush to even a bra. The cancer-detecting bra is utilized for patients to tell if they are at risk for breast cancer. It can be hard to tell if the cells in the breast are uncontrollably growing in large amounts, so wearing this ultrasound bra can benefit millions of women when it comes to fighting cancer. 

To put it simply, it’s not just an ordinary foam bra, it’s a wearable ultrasound scanner that’s able to detect tumors in their early stages. A smart bra that can be worn daily by women, and put on comfortably on their breasts to detect any cancer movement. In the past, mammography was the most used screening to diagnose women with breast cancer. However, it can compress breasts, have difficulty in analyzing dense breasts, emit radiation, and it’s hard to come by in different countries. It’s more convenient for women to own a portable detector, and it comes with fourteen different sensors that are connected to a USB outlet with cables. They also use thermal, ultrasonic, and impedance sensors that don’t emit any radiation, do not compress breasts, and are very flexible when it comes to charging and utilizing them. You can also receive results between thirty and twenty-four hours since all prototypes are connected to transmission systems to analyze the data.

But where was this mysterious, cancer bra, even developed? And who even thought of the idea? Due to how developed and advanced science has been, a robotics engineer by the name of Kemisola Bolarinwa, was able to create this cancer bra. The first working smart bra to detect cancer was in February 2021, in a technology company in Abuja, Nigeria. As founder of the Nextwear Technology company, she strives to produce more wearable technology for the betterment of our globe’s lives. She was inspired by the seventeen thousand women that die from this disease, and the breast cancer problem in Nigeria as well. One of those women who tragically died was close to Bolarinwa, and in 2017 her aunt passed away because of a late diagnosis. Women’s survival rate for breast cancer in the beginning is 100% but it continuously drops down if diagnosed in its later stages, to even as low as 20%. The death of her aunt motivated her to create this device and to raise awareness of breast cancer, as many women in Africa do not know what cancer is and treat it with traditional medicine. Bolarinwa “saw women of different age groups, even teenagers, groaning in the pain of breast cancer. That was when [she] felt [she] needed to contribute [her] part to fight the disease.” Her invention has made it comfortable for women at home to detect their breasts for cancer, instead of going through the disadvantages of mammography. Bolarinwa and her team will continue to create more prototypes of their bras, and more wearable technological inventions to benefit the lives of our world.