A new technique has been developed at Singapore’s National University Hospital to detect cancer in its earliest stages, a team of researchers said on Saturday.

Called an “optical biopsy,” the technique can detect so-called pre-cancers - collections of a few hundred malignant cells lurking among millions of healthy cells - that usually fly under the radar of standard cancer screenings.  

By using near-infrared fluorescence imaging, doctors may spot cancer risk before any physical signs appear.

“Since we use the near-infrared red light, there’s much better penetration into the tissue. Near-infrared red is a biologically transparent light so it is quite safe for human cells and tissues,” A researcher at National University Hospital said. “However, near-infrared rays also produce a weak signal and it may take hours to get a reading - something which the NUS team had overcome with a hardware they had designed and are fine tuning,” the researcher added.

The hospital is conducting a trial involving 58 patients, 12 of whom are receiving treatment after the “optical biopsy” diagnosed them with early-stage cervical cancer.

The technique detects pre-cancers or collections of a few hundred malignant cells among millions of healthy cells.

The new technique can be applied to almost any cancer, but not without more clinical trials and further improvements to the hardware used, like better probes.

The results of their findings were published in the scientific publication, Journal Of Analytical Chemistry.

However, Prof Soo Khee Chee, director of the National Cancer Centre, cautions against simply relying on optical biopsies for diagnosis