In 2019, Tom Sanders participated in the HiTMaT call of Holland High Tech and won germ money to start his invention: the Early Warning Scan for Breast Cancer (EWS). With this device, breast cancer can soon be detected painlessly and at an early stage: ''Realizing our first Early Warning Scan prototype was a real milestone,'' says Tom Sanders.
The winning idea
The development of the Early Warning Scan for breast cancer started with an idea from Tom Sanders, born out of sheer frustration. His wife, Paulette Kreté, was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2019. For 10 years, her mammogram results had shown no abnormalities. Her specific variant of cancer is not visible on a mammogram. The fact that breast cancer can be invisible got Tom Sanders thinking. He believed that other techniques that were not yet common in breast cancer research could detect this cancer variant.
Sanders managed to convince a number of partners of his idea. They then participated together in the HiTMaT call of Holland High Tech. Tom's idea won € 25,000 germ money in the Health and Care category. With this money the development of Early Warning Scan could start.
The last steps
Tom says: ''It took a lot of money and effort to realize the prototype, but we succeeded. This is partly thanks to donations from people and companies, collected by YvYa. After more than a year of testing, tuning and redesigning, the Early Warning Scan prototype is currently being dismantled to prepare for improvements. Thanks to a grant from the Eindhoven Metropolitan Area, imaging is being expanded to include hyperspectral imaging. In this way we can further increase the effectiveness of signaling breast cancer symptoms. It is the last step before the clinical trial can start.”
This is how the Early Warning Scan works
Benefits of the Early Warning Scan
- The EWS is for women of all ages
- Affordable, Sanders estimates the cost for a scan at a maximum of €20
- Painless and contactless
- Without radiation, it can be repeated annually (several times).
The YvYa foundation
Paulette Kreté, wife of Tom Sanders, founded the YvYa foundation together with other breast cancer victims to ensure that research can continue. Since the Early Warning Scan won the incentive prize of Holland High Tech in 2019, they have received a lot of interest.
Tom and his wife Paulette hope to realize their dream that the Early Warning Scan will be part of the regular population screening in a few years.
