Breast Thermography for Early Detection of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the leading cancer in women. Early detection of breast cancer increases chances of total recovery. Traditional recommendations by far have been regular and periodic self examination and annual check ups using mammography. Mammograms can also detect microcalcifications (calcium deposits) in the breast. The deposits come from the debris from cell secretions or from foreign bodies.

But mammography as a screening tool for early detection has many drawbacks.

Patient Undergoing Mammogram; via Wikipedia

Limitations of mammograms

•  Mammograms use X rays. Dr. John Gofman, a nuclear physicist and a medical doctor, says in his book “Radiation from Medical Procedures in the Pathogenesis of Cancer and Ischemic Heart Disease”, that a high percentage of cancers today are x-ray induced. Exposure to X rays, including CT scans, can lead to structural chromosomal aberrations and other mutations even at very low doses. The biological damage does not come directly from  x-rays itself but from electrons dislodged from their normal atomic orbits within body tissues. These highly energetic electrons leave their atomic orbits and travel at high speeds and collides with other cells altering the structures of DNA and chromosome before slowing down.
• Only the part of the breast that extends from the body can be imaged, and it is difficult to capture the periphery of the breast. Thus, it may be difficult to detect abnormalities that exist in the arm pit or near the chest wall.
• Mammography does not detect all cancers. There is always the possibility of false negatives. Mammograms are most effective for women over forty. As a woman ages, breast tissue gets slowly replaced with fat. Fat appears gray on mammograms, and provides a good contrast to the white spots that indicate abnormalities. Young women have dense breasts – more glandular (milk-producing) and connective tissue than fatty tissue – that cannot provide good mammogram images. Breast cancers tend to develop in the dense tissue of the breast; so, older women whose mammograms show more dense tissue have a higher risk of developing breast cancer.
• The cancer may be too small to be revealed by this test. Up to 20 percent of breast cancers are missed by mammograms, according to the National Cancer Institute. By the time a woman can discover any suspicious lump, it may be well past the early stages.
• Women with breast implants cannot rely on mammograms.
• The process can be painful because the machine presses against the breast and spread it out. This also increases the chances of the tumor spreading to other parts of the body.
• Mammograms are not useful for women who are on hormone replacement.

Due to the threat of cancer from the ionizing X rays, many doctors and alternative medicine practitioners recommend Thermography, or thermal imaging. Just as unique as a fingerprint, each patient has a particular infrared map of their breasts. Cancer cells grow faster than other cells and to match the rapidly increasing need for nutrients, more blood flows into the area. Cancerous tissues emit more infra-red heat than healthy tissues. Thermography makes use of these facts and measures the infrared radiation using sensors and converts this information into anatomical images. Thus, thermograph is able to detect chemical changes associated with a tumor’s birth and growth (angiogenesis or new blood vessel formation). Thermography offers a very early warning system, often able to pinpoint cancer  years before it would be detectable by mammography.

However, thermography does not have the ability to pinpoint the location of a tumor. Consequently, once breast cancer is suspected, other techniques like ultrasound, MRI or even mammgrams can be used for additional details.
 
Thermography’s key asset is that it seems to spot active pre-cancerous breast signs some six to eight years before any palpable lump appears. So, when these thermographical images taken periodically are used as medical records, it is easy to spot an abnormality early on. Whereas mammography require radiation and compression of the breast, contact, thermography is a very comfortable procedure and can detect some of the cancers that mammography cannot.

Thermal images show a snapshot of the skin’s surface response to any disease or injury, and does not show organs or deeper structures or underlying inflammation. Again, not all tumors are associated with a high level of blood vessel activity and can escape infrared detection. Therefore, the consensus is that thermography is useful for screening purposes, and mammography is useful for diagnostic purposes. Breast thermography and mammography are really complementary procedures.

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Breast Thermograhy