The Chairman of the British Lung Foundation is describing a new high resolution scanner, which produces three dimensional images of the body, as "a significant advance".
Dr Keith Prowse says the Brilliance CT machine enables clinicians to see much smaller things in both the lungs and the airways.
"This is a quantum shift from the first CT scanners as it gives a lot more detail,” he says.
"It seems to be another step beyond what we were previously able to do. The high resolution helps you decide whether there is anything there and how best to get at it.
"In the case of cancer, it will help us see how far it has spread. It will also help us pick up new patterns of abnormality. It promises to be a significant advance."
The scanner was launched at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago yesterday.
The £1million pound machine produced by Philips uses technology which reduces the normal radiation dose to patients by up to 80%.
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