Elastography—detecting cancer through the body's seismic sounds

According to a 2016 report, the total number of new cancer cases expected last year was around 14.5 lakh and could reach nearly 17.3 lakh by 2020. The number of people expected to succumb to cancer in 2016 was over 7.36 lakh, and that number could go up to 8.8 lakh by 2020. As per the data, it was also observed that only 12.5 percent of people suffering from cancer come in for treatment in the early stages.

Cancer can now be identified and consequently diagnosed using a new type of technology that makes use of the human body’s natural seismic sounds, thereby giving scope for better imaging inside the body. This will assist in addressing cancer-causing tumours.

Elastography, sometimes referred to as seismology, estimates and measures the elasticity of the biological tissues in the human body so as to diagnose cancer or liver and thyroid diseases more accurately and effectively and at much earlier stages.

According to a report by Indian Express, Stefan Catheline, Research Director at the University of Lyon, France, said,

“Passive elastography is foreseen as a viable technique for cancer detection in organs deep in the body, such as the prostate or liver, for well-protected organs such as the brain, and for fragile organs such as the eye."

Similar to those of earthquakes, these shear waves move across organs and the softer tissues throughout the day.

As per a report by The Hindu, Stefan said,

"The idea, as in seismology, is to take advantage of shear waves naturally present in the human body due to muscles' activities to construct a shear elasticity map of soft tissues. It is thus a passive elastography approach since no shear wave sources are used."

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