A handheld ultrasound probe connected to a phone or tablet can pick out suspicious changes in the breast without a radiologist, an Indian study has found. Carried out from 2023 to 2025 at Kolkata's PG Hospital and the Malabar Cancer Care Society in Kerala, it was published last week in JCO Global Oncology, a journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
It involved 319 women aged 40 to 75: 149 from primary screening in rural areas and 170 linked to services at the PG Hospital. The scans were done by trained non-radiologist doctors with no earlier ultrasound experience, who gained the skill through training and remote advice from specialists.
The probe's sensitivity was 94.4 percent and its specificity 76.7 percent. None of the 37 cancers found in screening was missed at the final examination, and unnecessary referrals fell by about 50 percent. The small, portable and relatively cheap device does not depend on an uninterrupted power or internet connection.
The study was led by Partha Basu of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which funded it, and Diptendra Sarkar, then a teaching doctor at the PG Hospital. For context, the report cites an Indian Council of Medical Research forecast of 238,908 potential breast cancer cases in India in 2025 and a Globocan estimate of 192,200 new cases in 2022; the two figures come from different years and methods.
Specialists say the method does not replace final diagnosis: suspicious cases still need mammography, conventional ultrasound and if necessary a biopsy. But if the people who need those tests quickly can be identified at the primary level, Sarkar says, it will ease pressure on time, money and specialist services, particularly where radiologists are scarce.
The report is by Ei Samay's Anirban Ghosh.
Source: Ei Samay
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