Notre Dame Professor researching cancer detection with gold

For the last few years, University of Notre Dame Professor Ryan Roeder has been working on research that would help improve accuracy when detecting breast cancer.

According to Roeder, injecting gold nanoparticles into breast tissue can significantly help with the detection of abnormalities commonly associated with breast cancer diagnoses.

The same way metals can block x-ray signals and show up in an airport screening, Roeder says gold can block x-ray signals in a mammogram, allowing those abnormalities to be more visible.

A local radiologist, Dr. Allison Lamont, says the research is promising.

“It’s very promising technology anything that is going to help us make it easier to detect these smaller and smaller particles or smaller and smaller calcifications is going to be very promising for the whole field of mammography for women and women’s health in general.”

Doctor Lamont says she recommends all women receive their annual mammogram starting at age 40.