A handheld gadget used to scan for diseases in the sci-fi series Star Trek could soon become reality, with a new Kiwi study targeting our high rates of skin cancer.
In New Zealand, where skin cancer rates are four times that of the UK and US, one person dies from the disease each day on average.
While five-year survival rates for patients diagnosed early was around 98 per cent, this dropped sharply to just 16 per cent for advanced cases, making early diagnosis critical.
A group of researchers have now conceived a smarter, faster way to diagnose suspicious lesions.
