An Intro to Breast Thermography

What Is A Thermogram?

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is coming up and the NHIC wants you to know all of your options when it comes to breast health.

A breast thermogram is a completely non-invasive diagnostic tool that uses thermographic imaging to detect minute changes or irregularities in breast tissue. Because the pictures can see heat signatures at a cellular level, a thermogram can reveal early signs of a tumor before it has had a chance to develop. 

Thermography has been an FDA-approved adjunct to mammography for breast cancer screening since 1982 and while mammograms are still much more popular, thermograms offer patients a wide range of benefits that mammograms alone cannot.

Check Out The Facts:

•Data on 300,000 women showed more than 95% of breast cancers are identified with 90% accuracy by thermography. In women under the age of 50 where there is the most devastating loss of life from breast cancer, mammograms, MRIs and PET scans cannot match the diagnostic sensitivity of breast thermography.

• Breast thermography involves no exposure to radiation or breast compression and is painless and easy to do!

• Mammograms have shown an average of 80% sensitivity. In other words, 20% of cancers are not detected. In women with dense breasts, large or small breasts, implants, pregnant or nursing, suffering from fibrocystic breast disease, or over the age of 50—accuracy is even less. None of these variables affect the sensitivity of a thermogram.

•Thermograms can detect tumors with a 2mm diameter, the size of a grain of rice, and 10X smaller than the size of a tumor detectable by a manual breast exam. Thermograms can also detect signs of breast cancer 5-8 years before a mammogram. See below.