A Non-Invasive, No Radiation Breast Screening Procedure

What is Breast Thermography?

Breast thermography is a 15 minute non invasive test of physiology. It is a valuable procedure for alerting your doctor to changes that can indicate early stage breast disease.

The benefit of breast thermography is that it offers the opportunity of earlier detection of breast disease than has been possible through breast self examination, doctor examination or mammography alone.

Thermography can detect the subtle physiologic changes that accompany breast pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, an infection or a vascular disease. Your doctor can then plan accordingly and lay out a careful program to further diagnose and /or MONITOR you during and after any treatment.

Thermography is a painless, non invasive, state of the art clinical test without any exposure to radiation and is used as part of an early detection program which gives women of all ages the opportunity to increase their chances of detecting breast disease at an early stage. It is particularly useful for women under 50 where mammography is less effective.

Who should have this test?

All women can benefit from breast thermography screening. However, it is especially appropriate for younger women (30 - 50) whose denser breast tissue makes it more difficult for mammography to be effective. Also for women of all ages who, for many reasons, are unable to undergo routine mammography. This test can provide a �clinical marker� to the doctor or mammographer that a specific area of the breast needs particularly close examination.

It takes years for a tumor to grow thus the earliest possible indication of abnormality is needed to allow for the earliest possible treatment and intervention. Thermography�s role in monitoring breast health is to help in early detection and monitoring of abnormal physiology.

Breast cancers tend to grow significantly faster in younger women under 50.

• Under 50 = 80 Days
• 50 - 70 = 157 Days
• Over 70 = 188 Days

The faster a malignant tumor grows, the more Infrared radiation it generates. For younger women in particular, results from thermography screening can lead to earlier detection and, ultimately, longer life.

Doctors do not yet know how to prevent breast cancer. However you can increase your chances of detecting breast cancer in its earliest stages by understanding the need for, and participating in an early detection program.

Only about 20 percent of biopsied breast lumps are cancerous. And, if cancer is found early, there are choices for treatment. With prompt treatment, the outlook is good. In fact, most women treated for early breast cancer will be free from breast cancer for the rest of their lives.

Breast Screening Procedure

This procedure is totally painless and there is no compression or contact with the body. The test is non invasive, uses no radiation, and is F.D.A approved.

The procedure is:

• Non invasive
• No radiation
• Painless
• No contact with the body
• F.D.A approved

This quick and easy test starts with your medical history being taken before you partially disrobe for the scanning to be performed. This first session provides the baseline of your �thermal signature�.

A subsequent session assures that the patterns remain unchanged.

All of your thermograms (breast images) should be kept on record and once your stable thermal pattern has been established any changes can be detected during your routine annual studies.

Thermography offers the opportunity of earlier detection of breast disease than has been possible with breast self examination, doctor examination or mammography alone.

Breast thermography is a non invasive test. This means there is no contact with the body of any kind, no radiation and the procedure is painless.

Thermography detects the subtle physiologic changes that accompany breast pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, an infection or a vascular disease. Your doctor can then plan accordingly and lay out a careful program to further diagnose and /or MONITOR you until other standard testing is positive. This allows for the earliest possible treatment.

Regular breast thermography screening can provide an early alert for possible referral to mammography, sonography, or MRI to improve early detection by your doctor.

It takes years for a tumor to grow, and the earliest possible indication of abnormality is needed to allow for the earliest possible treatment and intervention.

Early Detection Guidelines

One day there may be a single method for the early detection of breast cancer. Until then, using a combination of methods will increase your chances of detecting cancer in an early stage. These methods include :

• Annual breast thermography screening for women of all ages.
• Mammography, when considered appropriate for women who are aged 50 or older.
• A regular breast examination by a health professional.
• Monthly breast self-examination.
• Personal awareness for changes in the breasts.
• Readiness to discuss quickly any such changes with a doctor.

These guidelines should be considered along with your background and medical history.

If breast thermography is so great, why isn�t it more widely used?

The answer is somewhat political but this may help to explain:

When thermography was first explored for breast imaging, it was viewed as competitive to mammograms. It was tested and evaluated to see if it was safer and more diagnostically accurate than mammography. These comparisons should not have been made, as you can not compare tests of physiology and anatomy.

In particular, when thermography was tested on younger women, thermographic abnormalities were detected many times but mammograms did not detect any tumors. The results were considered �false positives�. The more patients of younger age screened with the so-called false positive, the more suspicion was placed on thermography. Years later, in re-call studies, a large percentage of these women had developed breast cancer or other breast disease, in the exact location of the abnormal �false-positive� thermogram, thus validating its early warning role. Thermography�s only �error� was that it was too accurate too early and the results couldn�t be corroborated at the time.

Secondly, thermography was being used in sports medicine, dentisty, podiatry, chiropractic, orthopedics rheumatology, and neurology in a variety of support or adjunctive diagnostic roles. It was soon realized that thermography could clearly, objectively, and easily demonstrate the physiological component of pain and injury, especially to the spinal column, due to car accidents, job injuries, and a host of other �tort� related law suits. Everyone involved had benefited from these positive test findings, which could be clearly shown to a jury. Everyone that is except the defendant insurance industry.

Needless to say, the insurance industry in the United States placed an all-out effort to diminish the value of thermography in courts of law due to high litigation costs. Eventually, lobbying efforts at the AMA�s House of Delegates and at Medicare, brought about the removal of thermographic coverage by most insurance companies and the greatly reduced utilization of thermography in the United States. This was most unfortunate for the patients who could clearly benefit from thermal imaging.

Have clinical tests been done on thermal imaging?

Yes! Over 800 peer-reviewed studies on breast thermography exist in the index medicus literature. In this database, well over 300,000 women have been included as study participants. The numbers of participants in many studies are very large (10,000, 37,000, 60,000, 85,000, etc.) Some of these studies have followed patients for up to 12 years.

These clinical trials have demonstrated that breast thermography:

• detects the first signs of a cancer up to 10 years before any other procedure can detect it
• significantly augments the long-term survival rates of its recipients by as much as 61%
• when used as part of a multimodal approach (clinical examination + mammography + thermography), will detect 95% of early stage cancers

Is thermal imaging a replacement for mammograms or ultrasounds?

No. While some women make a personal choice to use thermal imaging instead of mammography for breast screening, other women who cannot use mammography for a number of reasons can use thermography instead of mammography. Most women use thermal imaging in addition to mammography and/or ultrasound.

We believe that (Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging - DITI) should be viewed as a complementary, not competitive, tool to mammography and ultrasound. DITI has the ability to identify patients at the highest level of risk and actually increase the effective usage of mammograms and ultrasounds. Research confirms that DITI, when used with mammography, can improve the sensitivity of breast cancer detection.

The ultimate choice should be made on an individual basis with regard to clinical history, personal circumstances and medical advice.

Find a Centre near you

Click on the link below to find an ACCT Approved Thermography Clinic in your area:

http://www.thermologyonline.org/breast_thermography_clinics.htm