THURSDAY, April 3, (News Locale) - More often than not cancerous growths are detected when it is too late to effectively control them. Now researchers have devised a new scan that can spot even tiny tumors with mind-boggling precision. 

Researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine have utilized Raman spectroscopy to develop a new imaging system that enables doctors to visualize the cancers that are 1,000 times more detailed than previously possible.

Raman effect is a unique phenomenon in physics that is based on the principle of scattering light. When light shines on an object, in this case a cancer, it causes one in 10 million photons to bounce back. This bounce rate is called a spectral fingerprint and can be measured for each unique molecule.

The Stanford group used this principle to spot cancers. Tiny nanoparticles, which are injected into the body, will serve as a staring point for the laser beam when it shines on them. They tried out this method in lab mice by injecting Raman nanoparticles into them and then viewing them under a microscope after they were exposed to laser light.

"Usually we can measure one or two things at a time," said a statement issued by senior author Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir."With this, we can now likely see 10, 20, 30 things at once."

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said that a clinical trial to test this method on early-stage colorectal cancer was being planned in the near future.