According to doctors in London a new method for scanning children’s livers for tumours could prevent them from any unnecessary exposure to radiation.

Children are more vulnerable to radiation and because of this they can increase the chances of developing cancer later in life if they are exposed to radiation from the current method.

A team at King’s college hospital are trailing a new method that turns organs into a field of gold to find tumours.

Prof Paul Sidhu, a consultant radiologist at King’s College Hospital, said: ”We are trying to stop children having unnecessary radiation as the long-term effects show a substantial increase in cancer,”

The team are testing an upgraded version of ultra sound that involves injecting a harmless chemical into the arm which forms temporary microscopic bubbles in the blood stream which make it easier to see any abnormalities in the ultra scan more clearly.

Prof Sidhu said: “It makes the arteries light up and then the veins and the whole liver. It looks like a field of gold.

“It looks like a black hole. It’s so clear it is like day and night,

“This is an exciting breakthrough, but it now needs multicentre trials probably involving up to a couple of thousand patients [to prove it works]“.