Radar and Breast Cancer  (Print This) 06/16/2005 A technology developed to find land mines might one day help save many more lives.

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Magda El-Shenawee, a University of Arkansas engineer, thinks radar can be used to spot cancer buried in breast tissue.  Current mammograms make 2-D pictures by shooting x-rays through a breast squished between two plates.  They can save your life, but it's definitely not comfortable.  So El-Shanawee and others are developing small portable radar systems that would send harmless electromagnetic waves through a naturally-shaped breast.  She says a suspicious lump would scatter the waves in a way that engineers can turn into a precise 3-D image.  With the National Academy of Engineering, Randy Atkins, WTOP Radio.

• About microwaves and radar
• Many uses for El-Shenawee's research
• More on mammograms

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