10100909Digital Rapid Autonomous Cancer Screening (DRACS)ActiveCollaborative R&DInnovate UKChromition's 'Digital Rapid Autonomous Cancer Screening' (DRACS) project will transform the way breast cancer is diagnosed. DRACS enables earlier diagnosis of breast cancer for patients to commence treatment sooner for improved quality of life and survival. Breast cancer patients require expert pathologist visual microscopic-assessment of a tissue biopsy before treatment can commence. There is a global shortage of pathologists and only 3% of NHS-histology-departments have enough staff to meet demand that is growing by over 10% each year. DRACS will contribute to circumventing the predicted crisis in NHS pathology services by digitising pathology processes, increasing capacity and reducing the cost of diagnosing new breast cancer patients. DRACS utilises extraordinarily bright multicoloured Luminspheres (photoluminescent polymer nanoparticles) to simultaneously and selectively stain any cancer cells present in a single tissue biopsy or less invasive blood sample taken from the patient. A high-throughput digital analyser is used to detect any Luminspheres stained breast cancer cells. The data is then evaluated by software that quantifies the number and type of breast cancer cells, with greater speed and accuracy than human visual analysis, to support the clinician's diagnosis and selection of personalised treatment for the patient. DRACS is sufficiently sensitive to detect a single breast cancer cell in a blood sample and identify lowly expressed specific breast cancer-markers that can be missed by conventional diagnosis. Following this project, DRACS will be validated in the early-stage diagnosis and targeted treatment selection for other cancers.