A Comparative Review of Thermography as a Breast Screening Technique
Published: Integrative Cancer Therapies 2009
Abstract
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer of women in North America. The probability of developing breast cancer increases with age and the largest risk factors associated with its development, specifically age and gender, are not modifiable. Despite advances in treatment that have reduced breast cancer mortality over the past two decades, next to lung cancer, this disease still remains the second leading cause of cancer induced death in women. Several well established tools are currently used to screen for breast cancer including clinical breast exams, mammograms, and ultrasound. Mammography has been the gold standard for screening breast cancer, though as a screening tool its sensitivity and specificity are limited. Ultrasound and clinical breast exams are adjunctive tools used in the breast screening process, particularly for women with mammographically dense breasts. Thermography, first introduced as a breast screening tool in 1956 has been approved for use by the FDA since 1982 and was initially well accepted. However, after a 1977 study found thermography to lag behind both mammography and ultrasound, the medical community quickly lost interest in this tool and its application has been greatly limited. In this review, each of the breast screening tools and their associated limitations are discussed, with a focus brought to thermography. No single screening tool provides excellent predictability but a combination of tools that also incorporates thermography has been shown to boost both sensitivity and specificity. In light of developments in computer technology, and the maturation of the thermographic industry, additional research is required to confirm and/or continue to develop the potential of this technology to provide a more effective noninvasive adjunctive tool to provide early detection of breast cancer.
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