BEIJING, Aug. 18 - China's first indigenously developed breast cancer PET scanner was approved by the State Food and Drug Administration for clinical use, said the Institute of High Energy Physics under Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The high resolution, sensitive device can be used to detect breast cancer at a very early stage, even if patients have not shown clinical symptoms, said Wei Long, deputy director of the institute.

The institute embarked on the research and development of the scanner in 2007, bringing it into clinical trial in 2014. The intellectual property rights of the core technology and system integration of the scanner have been registered in China.

Chen Hesheng, a CAS academic, said the device would help to break the monopoly of foreign companies in China's high-end medical device market.