MammoScreen
General aspects
MammoScreen ‘Innovative and safe microwave-based imaging technology to make breast cancer screening more accurate, inclusive and female-friendly’ is a four years European project, co-funded by the European Commission and United Kingdom, with a total budget of 7 million euros.
The project has been selected by the European Commission and is part of work program "Mission Cancer" which, among others, has been set to support the development of new methods and technologies in cancer screening and early diagnosis.
Coordinated by the Toscana Life Sciences Foundation (Italy), MammoScreen is carried out by an international consortium made up of seven partners: Umbria Bioengineering Technologies S.r.l. (Italy), Servicio De Salud De Castilla La Mancha (Spain), IMT School (Institutions, Markets, Technologies) High Studies of Lucca (Italy), EVITA – Associação de Apoio a Portadores de Alterações nos Genes Relacionados com Cancro Hereditário (Portugal), Elaros 24/7 Limited (Great Britain) and London South Bank University LBG (Great Britain).
Project’s activities
MammoScreen has the aim of generating clinical evidence on the use of a mammography system based on microwave frequencies, instead of X-ray ionizing radiation, for breast cancer screening. MammoScreen is based on MammoWave technology developed by Umbria Bioengineering Technologies (UBT), an Italian company affiliated with Toscana Life Sciences Foundation, and which develops medical imaging devices based on a patented technology that uses microwaves instead of ionizing radiation. Further, MammoWave does not apply any compression on the breast and is very effective with dense breasts, potentially giving the opportunity to 98 million women in Europe to access prevention programs, with a wider age range by also including women aged 20 – 49.
The project MammoScreen will verify if the MammoWave device is able to achieve sensitivity >90% and specificity >95% in the detection of breast cancer. The clinical study will involve 10,000 women on a voluntary basis, already included in breast cancer prevention programs at European level. The EU countries involved in the search for recruitment centers are Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Ukraine.
