A Christchurch start-up is developing a radiation-free breast cancer screening system that will perform better in hard-to-diagnose cases.
Tiro Lifesciences, a company part-owned by the University of Canterbury, is developing a screening system to detect cancer in dense breast tissue.
Chief executive Marcus Haggers said about 40 per cent of women currently screened have dense breast tissue.
This tissue has an increased risk of breast cancer but is also more difficult to screen using X-ray mammography.
"Healthy dense tissue has virtually the same X-ray absorption characteristics as cancerous tissue, making it difficult or impossible to spot certain cancer cases on a mammogram image."