Those aren't daisy petals or spokes on a wheel. Each strip radiating out from the center ring shown above is an electronic sensor, part of Z-Tech's experimental Breast Cancer Detection System. The sensors are placed over each breast while a patient lies on her back in a doctor's office, as shown in the inset photo. Low-level electrical currents are then transmitted painlessly through the breasts in a 15-minute procedure.
Because electricity passes through malignant tissue more easily than through healthy tissue, computer-measured comparisons of resistance can determine the presence of cancer. This represents a potential advantage over mammograms because "some cancers have no mass you can see," said radiologist James Craft of the Medical College of Georgia, one of 16 U.S. sites that will test the sensitivity of the Charleston-based company's device over the next 18 months.
-- Matt McMillen
