New imaging system to detect bowel cancer at the earliest stages using photonics

Early intervention could prevent many of the 160,000 deaths from colon cancer in Europe each year. Colonoscopies, the gold standard for spotting bowel cancer early, can still miss up to 20% of precancerous cells. But now, thanks to a pan-European health consortium, a new concept that uses photonics to help doctors spot bowel cancer could soon prevent up to half of these deaths and save €9 billion in reduced healthcare costs. No tools exist that can look inside the colon at the cellular level in real-time to give an immediate diagnosis. But now, this European research team based across ...