• Question: How do you detect cancer?

    Asked by EmilyC to Greg on 7 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Greg Melia

      Greg Melia answered on 7 Mar 2016:

      There are several ways that people detect cancer. They might use a CT scan, which is basically a 3 dimensional way of doing X rays. They might use an MRI scan, which uses a different technology but again produces a 3D image of the body, so doctors can see all the different tissues such as blood and bone, and can pick out the cancer tissue. Another approach is to use nuclear imaging, where someone puts a tracer chemical in your body that gets picked up by the cancer and radiates a small amount of radiation,which can be picked up with a special scanner called a PET scanner.

      What I’m working on is a way of detecting cancer using microwaves. The advantage of these is that they’re much safer than X-rays, because I can use them at very low energy so it’s completely safe. X-rays are quite powerful things, so you have to be careful with how you use them – going for one scan yourself is fine, but the machine needs to be kept in a closely controlled environment in a hospital. Since low-power microwaves are much safer, you can use the scanner anywhere you like!

Comments

  • Photo: Jen

    Jen commented on :

    Most often patients go to their Dr. with symptoms such as lumps, weight loss, tiredness, blood in pee or poo. These symptoms can be caused by lots of different things as well as cancer so GPs have to do tests to decide what is causing the problem. There are hundreds or tests they can choose. Most common are blood tests and scans – CT/MRI/PET. The different scans allow Drs to see what the inside of your body looks like or how it’s working. They can also a *-oscopy (e.g. cystoscopy, bronchoscopy) which involves putting a camera into the body to see what’s going on. I look at CT scans most days at work. It’s a greyscale image of a slice through the body. Like a 3D x-ray.