Investigational Studies

The NearWave Scanner is for investigational use only for these applications.

The NearWave Scanner® is currently used for research only.

Breast Cancer

Diagnosis

Mammography remains the standard-of-care for breast cancer screening and diagnosis. However, more than half of radiologists do not operate in the acceptable ranges for biopsy recommendations, according to a 2017 NIH study, suggesting an unmet clinical need. fdNIRS has been shown as a promising technology to help radiologists characterize benign or malignant legions in the breast, in one study showing >90% specificity and sensitivity. Additionally, fdNIRS can provide functional and metabolic information and is not limited by the density of breast tissue.

Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk from Pexels

Neoadjuvant

Chemotherapy

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is given to a patient in order to downstage tumors prior to surgery. Approximately 31% of women fail to respond to this therapy. It has recently been shown that measuring tissue oxygen saturation in breast tumors using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can predict the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy within 7 days of treatment. However, this type of functional imaging is not included in current standard-of-care imaging modalities. Increased monitoring can enable dynamic feedback for optimization of chemotherapy strategies in breast cancer prior to tumor size reduction.

Photo by Carlo Navarro on Unsplash

Neonatal Imaging

The lungs of newborns are not fully developed and it is not always clear if their brain is being properly oxygenated. Therefore, tracking the oxygenation in the brains of newborns is crucial to monitoring early treatment and development.

Other Research

Applications

Other research applications include cardiovascular health, bone cancer sarcoma, joint imaging, pre-clinical imaging, and many others!

Contact us to join our research efforts!