IT SOUNDS too good to be true, but two independent studies appear to show that tumours can be detected by scanning people with a hand-held device similar to the metal detectors used to frisk airline passengers. The development holds out the prospect of a mass-screening technology that is cheap, quick and non-invasive.
The idea for the scanner came about after physicist Clarbruno Vedruccio of the University of Bologna designed a detector for non-metallic landmines and plastic explosives. It occurred to him that it might also be able to locate cancerous tissues in people. So with the help of Turin-based aerospace…
