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All of us know or have known someone with cancer.

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In fact, one in three Americans can expect to be diagnosed

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with some form of the disease at one point in their life.

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A key to treating and defeating this insidious disease

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is to find it quickly before it spreads.

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Now, thanks to enterprising work done by researchers at NASA,

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doctors may soon have a new device called the smart probe,

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which will be able to detect some forms of cancer instantaneously,

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greatly improving the patient's chance for survival.

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Tonya St. Romain finds out more.

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Breast cancer is one of the most frightening and deadly forms of cancer,

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afflicting over 200,000 women every year.

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Early detection of the disease has helped many women find and treat the cancer quickly,

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but early detection technology is still not as good as it could be.

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To help improve the early detection of breast cancer,

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researchers at NASA have developed a revolutionary technology called the smart probe.

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This probe will be able to detect the presence of cancer

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much more precisely than current technology.

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Intended for long-duration space missions,

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this device could soon be saving lives here on Earth.

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I spoke with Dr. Robert Ma at NASA Ames Research Center to find out more.

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At this point, when a woman suspects a lump in her breast,

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she would go in to see a physician.

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The physician would examine and then decide whether to have a mammogram made of the lump.

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And from the mammogram, you could tell whether it may be malignant or not.

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If it is suspected to be, they would then go in for a biopsy.

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They normally go in using an ultrasound to guide a biopsy needle

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and go in there and extract samples of the lump.

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And that tissue sample gets analyzed by a pathologist.

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And that could take days in some cases.

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If it is malignant or cancerous, they have to go in there

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and take out as much as they possibly can.

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Every week in the United States, approximately 16,000 women

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needlessly undergo surgical breast biopsies where no cancer is found at all,

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while another 4,600 breast cancers are missed each week

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during physician review of mammograms and physical examinations.

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This is primarily due to the fact that initial breast cancer screening procedures

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do not provide specific information about known cancer indicators.

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For example, a light spot on a mammogram X-ray can be many things other than cancer,

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leading to a missed or inaccurate diagnosis.

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The new NASA Smart Probe is designed to see a suspicious lump in a breast,

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determine by its features if it is indeed cancerous,

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and ultimately predict how the disease may progress.

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The process of diagnosis begins when a small needle,

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which is mounted on the probe, is inserted into the lump.

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The probe is able to detect if the lump is cancerous or benign instantaneously,

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providing real-time, detailed interpretations at the needle's tip,

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supplying an accurate diagnosis in seconds rather than days.

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What's behind this technology is the software.

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The software that we develop learns like people do.

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It learns from experience.

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So when we stick the probe into different types of tissue,

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we teach the software that those characteristics are certain types of tissue,

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normal tissue or whether it's, say, normal muscle or normal fat tissue,

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cancerous or different types of cancer.

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If it is cancerous, instead of having to remove tissue around the tumor

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with a very wide margin, you could take less tissue out

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and you'd be more certain that you're not leaving behind malignant tissue there.

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So what you get here is confidence level as to what kind of tissue that the probe is seeing.

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How did NASA get involved in breast cancer research?

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It was clear that to put man on Mars and have him survive for three years,

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you need to provide him with smart tools for many different tests.

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Handling medical emergencies is one of those.

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So that's where we started to work in that direction.

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In preparation for a three-year-long mission to Mars,

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NASA planners have begun to develop smart medical robotics.

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These robots will be able to assist an astronaut physician in performing medical procedures

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if a problem occurs during a mission.

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With Mars being over 30 million miles away,

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this is particularly important because a transmission to Earth would take 20 minutes,

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further endangering the stricken crew member when every second counts.

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How else might this technology be used here on Earth?

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This technology has great potential.

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It could be used for spinal surgery.

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It could be used for prostate cancer detection.

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It could be used for brain surgery and just surgery in general

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where you want to minimize injury to critical targets.

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Dr. Ma, what are your overall hopes for the smart probe?

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I'm very excited about this technology

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because what we're developing in space can be applied for Earth use.

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I think a tool like this, the technology behind it,

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would revolutionize how medical practices will be carried out

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to be able to provide real-time diagnosis

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for virtually any kinds of medical problems they may have.

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So for me personally, it's very rewarding to see the potential that it saves people's lives

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or even minimize risk to hundreds and thousands of people.

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That's really rewarding.