Under observation

A team led by Dr John Lees, senior research fellow at the Bioimaging Unit of

Space Research Centre, has developed a small handheld gamma camera, based on technology used on NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The device, based on charged coupled devices (CCDs), is designed to complement large gamma cameras used in hospitals. These are around 1m wide, expensive and not very portable. They also have a resolution of 10mm, making them ideal for imaging the whole body but not so accurate for providing images of small tumours.

The handheld camera has a resolution of 1mm and can be used to monitor the effects of treatment, such as examining the lymph nodes in breast cancer patients. By viewing the node closest to the tumour, doctors can see if the cancer has spread and so determine how aggressive further treatment should be. The camera has other potential applications such as non-destructive testing of pipes.