New X-ray technology minimizes harmful exposure and allows better breast imaging.

While clear imaging is extremely important in diagnosing breast cancer from mammograms, there is also concern about exposing the patient to too much radiation from repeated X-rays. But that may soon change, says Krishna Mandal, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of South Carolina (USC), Columbia, who led the team that built a new type of Xray detector that offers tremendous potential in breast cancer detection and treatment.