Now, a scanner that can detect breast cancer without using radiation

Israeli scientists have developed a scanner that can detect breast cancer more effectively than traditional X-ray mammograms without using radiation.

The new device finds tumours in the breast by using infrared beams and thermal energy.

Scientists at Real Imaging, the Israeli inventors of the scanner, found women with breast cancer produced different signals on the surface of their skin. The machine can detect this without direct contact with the breast.

In a trial of 2,500 women the scanner was 92 per cent effective at detecting breast cancer, compared to 80 per cent for X-ray mammograms.

It was also found to be better at picking up cancers in younger women who tend to have denser breasts.

"Mammography is an old-fashioned technology which requires examination by the naked eye. The scanner is hi-tech and doesn’t require a human being to be accurate,” the Daily Express quoted Dr. Reuben Libson at Hadassah University Medical Centre in Jerusalem, as saying.

Further trials are due to be held but scientists hope the device will get EU approval this year, allowing it to be used in the U.K..