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AnonTechie writes:

Scientists at Munchen Technical University new technology that will allow soft tissue such as tumors to be easily visible at long last:

Soft tissue disorders like tumors are very difficult to recognize using normal X-ray machines. There is hardly any distinction between healthy tissue and tumors. Researchers at the Technische Universität München (TUM) have now developed a technology using a compact synchrotron source that measures not only X-ray absorption, but also phase shifts and scattering. Tissue that is hardly recognizable using traditional X-ray machines is now visible.

Now a group of scientists headed by Franz Pfeiffer, Professor of Biomedical Physics in the Physics Department Department and the Faculty of Medicine at TU München, have for the first time succeeded in making such soft tissue visible. The scientists used a new kind of X-ray source that was developed only a few years ago.

Unlike classical X-ray tubes, a synchrotron generates highly focused, monochromatic X-rays. The individual rays all have the same energy and wavelength. In the past, X-rays with these properties could only be generated in large particle accelerators, which have a circumference of at least one kilometer. The compact synchrotron, in contrast, has merely the size of a car and fits into a normal laboratory.

"Monochromatic radiation is much better suited for measuring other parameters, in addition to absorption," explains Elena Eggl, doctoral candidate at the Chair of Biomedical Physics. "This is because it does not lead to artifacts that deteriorate the image quality."

[Abstract]: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/04/16/1500938112