Indian doctors develop mobile app for cancer diagnosis

Zee Media Bureau

Parel: In a medical breakthrough, doctors at Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel, Mumbai, have developed a mobile phone application (app) that will help treat and diagnose people with cancer.

As per a Times of India report, the app, called TNM app, will help doctors diagnose the severity of cancer immediately.

According to Dr Rajendra Badwe, director of Tata Memorial Hospital, the app will help bring about standardization of cancer medicine practice across the country.

TNM, which stands for tumour, node and metastasis, is the main method to classify malignant tumours.

The launch of TNM app has eliminated the need to carry the handbook, which every doctor used to have it with them in order to correctly identify the stage of cancer in the patient they are treating.

Because with 65 types of cancers, it is not possible for doctors to remember various permutations and combinations.

The app is based on the cancer staging manual developed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC).

The app, which has been tested in 19 countries prior to the launch, can be downloaded for free by doctors across the world.

The app will also soon get a feature that patients and their relatives would find extremely useful.

“The app, once downloaded, can be accessed offline. It is an interactive app where the doctor can feed the required information and within 30 seconds can get the stage of cancer,” Dr Meenakshi Thakur, one of the three radiologists who designed the app, added.