Cancer as a disease is a difficult one to treat, especially if caught late in the process. With rapid cell production and growth developing tumors, time is often one of the most important factors in survival and healthy recovery. Breast cancer has an estimated 297,790 new cases expected in the year 2023 and an estimated 43 thousand deaths in women alone. Around 1 in 7 cases lead to death. Statistically, 131 out of every 100,000 women are diagnosed each year, and 19 out of those 131 end up dying.
Now, with screening and mammograms, we can detect and diagnose cancer earlier. The main problem is that healthcare is not as accessible as it should be. Many people either cannot afford healthcare or cannot access expensive testing such as a mammogram. We want to provide an affordable, at-home option that is accessible to everyone, no matter who or where they are. The aim of our project is to pave the way for bioassays as a diagnostic tool, specifically suited for at-home use. We kept the ideas of affordability and accessibility at the forefront of our research and when we had to make any decisions on how the device would function.
Our myRNA device is designed to add another layer of assurance and clarity. Another early sign of breast cancer is excess miR-424-5p in urine, so we can use genetic engineering to detect that microRNA using a device similar to a pregnancy test. The key difference of our device from other testing methods is its design to detect early-onset breast cancer in a way that can be obtained easily and used safely. Since our device produces a signal when excess of that miRNA is present, this device should be able to tell you whether the symptom you have is a sign of early breast cancer or a sign for a different condition. This technology can help at-risk patients check themselves more frequently because of the nature of the device, and it can help anyone assure or debunk any suspicion of breast cancer so that they can act fast.
Due to the nature of our device, the biologics involved have no way of reproducing or affecting the environment in any harmful way. The device includes a Cas13 enzyme and other sensitive components, so a portion of our research was devoted to the packaging and selling of this product. Most research suggests storage conditions around -20 or -80 C, which we believe can be accomplished from partnering with pharmacies across the globe. Most pharmacies have a -20 C fridge for most of their vaccines and refrigerated medications. Pharmacies can also promote this new bioassay and get more of their community to use the device, resulting in more identified cases or eased anxiety.
When early detection can decrease your odds of dying of breast cancer from 14% to 1%, any bit of information helping you be safe rather than sorry can potentially save your life, and that exactly is the objective that we have with this project.
Our project will give easier access to breast cancer detection methods to people who may be unable to easily utilize current methods. This is needed because early breast cancer detection is important to improve chances of successful treatment. As the biggest barriers people may face with current tests are cost and being unable to reach a doctor it is important for our diagnostic test to be fairly cheap and able to be easily stored and used in most households. Some ethical considerations that need to be considered are risks of false positives and negatives that could negatively impact users. This impacts us in that we need to carefully test the effectiveness of our project and what storage conditions it needs to remain effective. We talked to professors from various departments at our school to get feedback about our design. We were able to take those suggestions and use it to modify a protocol or even add another area of research.