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The camera on your iPhone could soon help save your life by testing to see if you have cancer in just a few minutes.

Scientists have developed a device that clips onto the smartphone and could even eventually be used at home.

Their device uses the powerful cameras available now on most smartphones in combination with tiny beads that bind to cancerous cells. 

The graphic above shows how a blood sample can be mixed with microbeads that bind to cancerous cells (labelled A). When these are placed in a clip on module (B) that attaches to a iPhone camera (C) the microbeads produce distinctive diffraction patterns when they clump around a diseased cell (top right)

When added to a tissue or blood sample, these microbeads bind to any cancerous cells in the sample, changing the way light passes through it.

Using a smartphone app, these images can then be sent to a central computer for analysis and then the result returned in less than 45 minutes.

The scientists behind the device, based at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, say it can even return results within two minutes.

They have already tested their device to detect cervical cancer in tissue samples obtained during smear tests.

However, they say the system - known as digital diffraction diagnosis or D3 - can be adapted to screen for other types of cancers and they have already begun a trial testing for lymphoma.

Professor Ralph Weissleder, a system's biologist at Harvard Medical School who led the work, said it could even be used to help diagnose infectious diseases like HIV, TB and Ebola.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor Weissleder and his colleagues said: 'We envisage that these advances will position D3 as a versatile screening tool for various cancer types (eg cervix, breast ad lymphoma) and infectious diseases (eg Ebola, HIV and tuberculosis) with applications in field work, mobile clinics and home care settings.'

The device works by using microbeads that specifically target molecules that sit on the surface of cancer cells.

Diseased cells often produce molecules that makes them stand out from healthy tissue and so can be detected by antibodies.

The images above show how the microbeads (small white circles in bottom images) clump around cells (dotted lines) in samples that were found to be of high risk of cervical cancer (left) low risk (middle) and benign (right)

By attaching specific antibodies to the beads, it is possible to make them bind to these molecules, meaning they will gather around a cancerous cell in a tissue or blood sample.

The scientists developed a module that can be attached to the camera of an iPhone 4s device

A tissue sample taken from a biopsy or blood from a simple finger prick could be mixed with these labelled microbeads and then placed on a slide.

This is then inserted into a module that can be clipped onto the camera of a smartphone.

An LED at the back of the module illuminates the sample on the slide and an image is taken by the camera on the phone. The scientists used an iPhone 4S in their tests.

When clumped around a cell, the beads alter the way the light passes through the sample by scattering it into distinctive diffraction patterns. 

This can be detected by a central computer that looks for these distinctive patterns.

The researchers say each test costs around £1.20 ($1.80).

They tested the device on 25 women whose smear tests suggested they were at risk of cervical cancer.

The graphic above shows the internal structure of the diagnosis module that can be attacked to a smartphone

They also used it to detect infection with human papilloma virus, which is thought to cause the cancer.

The images above show how the diffraction patterns created by beads and cells change when the beads clump around a cell, highlighting cancerous cells (bottom) compared to a healthy cell (top)

They found that their results were between 92% and 100% accurate when compared to the current 'gold standard' diagnostic test.

Professor Weissleder said that the prevalence of smartphone technology around the world could bring tests like this to remote areas.

He said: 'By taking advantage of the increased penetration of mobile phone technology worldwide, the system should allow the prompt triaging of suspicious or high-risk cases that could help to offset delays caused by limited pathology services in those regions and reduce the need for patients to return for follow-up care, which is often challenging for them.

Dr Cesar Castro, a cancer specialist at Massachusets General Hospital, said it could prove invaluable for places like Botswana, where there are less than 10 pathologists in the whole country.

He said: 'The global burden of cancer, limited access to prompt pathology services in many regions and emerging cell profiling technologies increase the need for low-cost, portable and rapid diagnostic approaches that can be delivered at the point of care.'