Cancer scan uses radar technology

The new system uses radio waves, unlike conventional mammograms

The first breast screening system to use safe radio waves rather than radiation-producing X-rays is being successfully trialled.

The new scan, which took three years to develop, is being tested at Frenchay Hospital near Bristol.

The new system carries the same minor radiation risk as "speaking into a mobile phone at arm's length".

The scans also take less time than the conventional X-rays but produce an image which is just as clear.

Doctors say the machine does not expose patients to the risk of cancer, and a scan takes only six minutes.

Professor Alan Preece and Dr Ian Craddock began developing a breast-imaging device which used radio waves, unlike conventional mammograms, in 2003

Dr Craddock, from the university's electrical and electronic engineering department, said: "This new imaging technique works by transmitting radio waves of a very low energy and detecting reflected signals, it then uses these signals to make a 3D image of the breast.

"This is basically the same as any radar system, such as the radars used for air traffic control at our airports."

You don't have to get to the right angle, there is no squeezing on your breast at all Theresa Thornton, patient

Mike Shere, associate specialist breast clinician at North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) said: "Currently women are diagnosed in three ways; firstly by a clinician, then by using imaging such as mammography and ultrasound and lastly by a needle biopsy.

"The radar breast imaging system came to Frenchay Hospital in September this year and so far around 60 women have been examined using it.

"It takes less time to operate than a mammogram - approximately six minutes for both breasts compared with 30-45 minutes for an MRI, and like an MRI it provides a very detailed 3D digital image.

"Women love it as they compare it to a mammogram and find the whole experience much more comfortable."

The radar breast imaging system is built using transmitters and receivers arranged around a ceramic cup, which the breast sits in.

Theresa Thornton, one of 60 women examined using the new technology, was referred for a mammogram after finding lumps in her breast - subsequently found to be benign.

She told BBC News: "With the new technique its just a cup so you don't have to position yourself into it on certain angles, literally the cup just comes straight up to you, covers your breast and that's it.

"You don't have to get to the right angle , there is no squeezing on your breast at all."

The development team hope that, if the positive results continue, further trials will be scheduled for the next 12 months.

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Study shows how spammers cash in

A tiny response means spammers still cash in (PA)

Spammers are turning a profit despite only getting one response for every 12.5m e-mails they send, finds a study.

By hijacking a working spam network, US researchers have uncovered some of the economics of being a junk mailer.

The analysis suggests that such a tiny response rate means a big spam operation can turn over millions of pounds in profit every year.

It also suggests that spammers may be susceptible to attacks that make it more costly to send junk mail.

Slim pickings

The spam study was carried out in early 2008 by computer scientists from University of California, Berkeley and UC, San Diego (UCSD).

For their month-long study the seven-strong team of computer scientists infiltrated the Storm network that uses hijacked home computers as relays for junk mail.

At its height Storm was believed to have more than one million machines under its control.

The team, led by Assistant Professor Stefan Savage from UCSD, took over a chunk of the Storm network to make it easier to run their study.

"The best way to measure spam is to be a spammer," wrote the researchers in a paper describing their work.

They created several so-called "proxy bots" that acted as conduits of information between the command and control system for Storm and the hijacked home PCs that actually send out junk mail.

The team used these machines to control a total of 75,869 hijacked machines and routed their own fake spam campaigns through them.

The research team created a legitimate looking pharmacy site.

Two types of fake spam campaign were run through these machines. One mimicked the way Storm spreads using viruses and the other tried to tempt people to visit a fake pharmacy site and buy a herbal remedy to boost their libido.

The fake pharmacy site was made to resemble those run by Storm's real owners but always returned an error message when potential buyers clicked a button to submit their credit card details.

While running their spam campaigns the researchers sent about 469 million junk e-mail messages. The vast majority of these were for the fake pharmacy campaign.

"After 26 days, and almost 350 million e-mail messages, only 28 sales resulted," wrote the researchers.

The response rate for this campaign was less than 0.00001%. This is far below the average of 2.15% reported by legitimate direct mail organisations.

"Taken together, these conversions would have resulted in revenues of $2,731.88—a bit over $100 a day for the measurement period," said the researchers.

Scaling this up to the full Storm network the researchers estimate that the controllers of the vast system are netting about $7,000 (£4,430) a day or more than $2m (£1.28m) per year.

While this was a good return, said the researchers, it did suggest that spammers were not making the vast sums of money that some people have predicted in the past.

They suggest that the tight costs might also open up new avenues of attack on spammers.

The researchers concluded: "The profit margin for spam may be meager enough that spammers must be sensitive to the details of how their campaigns are run and are economically susceptible to new defenses." Selengkapnya...