The Korea Communications Commission said Tuesday that the country will be able to use radio waves instead of radioactive rays to examine breast cancer by 2017.

The government agency said its affiliate Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute has put in a total of 3.8 billion won ($3.23 million) since last year and completed elementary research on the use of radio waves for breast cancer check-ups.

The new technology enables doctors to detect a lump in the breast that is about 5 millimeters in size, which is far more advanced than overseas technology that detects 1-2 centimeter lumps, said Jeon Soon-ik, principal member of engineering staff at the ETRI.

The event takes place at a time when the use of radio waves in detection of breast cancer has been researched in other countries like the U.K. and the U.S. because it is less harmful and may find tumors at an earlier stage.

“We believed the development of a new technology was needed since breast cancer is one of the six most frequently seen cancers and also an area of special interest for women,” he said. “Our proprietary technology uses only radio waves, which could be evaluated as safer than radioactive rays.”

As the agency was granted permission to go ahead with clinical trials, it plans use radio waves in the 3 gigahertz range to conduct testing on 15 people starting in July with the goal to complete the test by 2015. It is set to be commercialized by 2017.

“It will most likely be possible for anyone to go ahead with the examinations at low costs with the new technology and system,” he said.

As part of the check-up process, a patient lies face down on a clinical bed that has a hole around the breast area, according to Jeon. That area is surrounded with a sensing antenna that sends radio waves to another antenna to examine the person’s current condition and an image is produced at the final stage.

“No barriers are expected until the commercialization of the new medical system, but it will need to go through various examinations due to the fact that this is a new medical technology that was developed in combination with IT skills,” he said.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)