The magic box against cancer and all other ways to prevent it

In science fiction films and novels, patients often go through a scanner that delivers a full diagnosis in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, a machine that efficient doesn’t exist in real life yet. But there is an examination that comes quite close, and it’s Whole Body Diffusion MRI, which professor Umberto Veronesi, the world-renowned oncologist, had dubbed as “the magic box”. This examination cannot see everything, but it can discover many tumours – even small ones – that other diagnostic methods don’t detect. This early detection MRI technique is performed only in a few medical centres in the world, and the European Institute of Oncology in Milan is one of them. This revolutionary technique supports available treatments and cancer prevention in healthy people by predicting the enemy’s moves. In fact, WBD-MRI can scan the whole body in just one session without needing radiations or contrast agents. THE MAGIC BOX walks the reader through the development and goals of this technique, which boasts two centuries of fascinating history and is building an exciting future.