Identifying the stage of cancer quickly and accurately will become easier for healthcare professionals in developing countries, thanks to a new International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)-developed smartphone app. The new smartphone app, available for iPhone and Android devices, will enable cancer staging to be accessible, easy-to-use and will be absolutely free of charge. 

Typically expressed in stages ranging from one to four, with several sub-stages, the cancer staging system, called TNM, uses the size and location of the tumour (T), whether cancer cells have spread to the lymph nodes (N), and whether the tumour has spread to other parts of the body (metastasis or M). There is a complex system to determine each of these variables particularly when the main tumour and its spread are evaluated in the entire body.

“This information will now be at their fingertips, much easier to use through this interactive application,” said Ravi Kashyap, a diagnostic radiologist at the IAEA. The app will be operational offline as well, so doctors will be able to use it in remote locations without internet access.