Ultrasound screening for breast cancer A team of scientists from NPL and the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust have successfully completed an initial trial of a new, potentially more reliable, technique for screening breast cancer using ultrasound, and are now looking to develop the technique into a clinical device. 46,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year, using state-of- the-art breast screening methods based on X-ray mammography, but only about 30% of suspicious lesions turn out to be malignant. Each lesion must be confirmed by invasive biopsies, estimated to cost the NHS £35 million per year. Ionising radiation from X-rays also has the potential to cause cancer, which limits their use to single screenings of at risk groups, such as women over 50

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