New breast screening technology being tested

Researchers Using New Technology For Breast Cancer Testing

A potential new tool for detecting breast cancer is being tested at the University of California, San Diego.

With the new SoftScan technology, a woman’s breasts actually float comfortably in a warm solution without being squeezed while the imaging takes place."

It's basically a laser than shines through the breast that scans through the breast," said Comstock.

SoftScan is an optical scanner that uses a certain frequency of light to scan through the breast to detect areas of increased blood flow that might be a maker for breast cancer."Cancers have potentially more vascular hemoglobin. They may scatter light differently and they may have different oxygenation levels," said Comstock

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What I like about this screening tool is it does not involve radioactive injection, irradiating the breasts or traumatizing the breasts as in mammograms, which could actually cause inflammation and lead to new tumors, or could even burst the "tumor capsule" and start the metastasis process.

Between new blood tests and this screening tool, we will be so much better off for screening for breast cancer than we have been for the last 50 years.