Every week in the United States, 18,000 women with suspicious breast lesions undergo difficult surgical biopsies.
With breast cancer, just being tested is an ordeal, which is why the latest technology on the cutting edge may be a blessing.
Here's ABC's Judy Muller.
Surgeons who perform breast biopsies are well aware of the toll they take on patients.
"Very difficult for someone to have to go to the operating room, thinking they might have breast cancer, and that period of time when you're waiting to get an answer can just be torture."
Seventy five percent of those biopsies prove to be negative, and the surgery unnecessary.
But the new device, called a Smart Probe, could eliminate the need for diagnostic surgery.
A company called BioLuminate, in conjunction with NASA, is working on a needle packed with tiny sensors that would provide an instant diagnosis.
"It's connected to a computer and instantly reads out the characteristics of the tissue as the needle is being inserted into the patient."
The sensors would measure properties peculiar to cancer tissue.
"...oxygen level, the presence or absence of hemoglobin."
"So, this is really a tiny little telescope?"
"Correct. Exactly."
Co-inventor and NASA researcher Robert Mah is excited about the probe's potential.
The computer software is designed to do more than just diagnose one case at a time; it will be able to accumulate knowledge.
"It'll learn new stuff as we are using it, but it'll be making interpretation based on what's been taught before."
That means it could help track the success or failure of treatment.
But the initial application would be detection, eliminating the need for those unnecessary biopsies.
"It would be really great not to frighten people, not to even refer them for consideration for a biopsy."
If clinical trials prove successful - and that is still a big if - the Smart Probe could be available in three to four years.