Thermography

Thermography is a test that uses an infrared camera to detect heat patterns and blood flow in body tissues.

Digital infrared thermal imaging (DITI) is the type of thermography that’s used to diagnose breast cancer. DITI reveals temperature differences on the surface of the breasts to diagnose breast cancer.

The idea behind this test is that, as cancer cells multiply, they need more oxygen-rich blood to grow. When blood flow to the tumor increases, the temperature around it rises.

One advantage is that thermography doesn’t give off radiation like mammography, which uses low-dose X-rays to take pictures from inside the breasts. However, thermography isn’t as effective as mammography at detecting breast cancer.

Keep reading to learn more about how this procedure stacks up against mammography, when it might be beneficial, and what to expect from the procedure.

Is it an alternative to a mammogram?

Thermography has been around since the 1950s. It first caught the interest of the medical community as a potential screening tool. But in the 1970s, a study called the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project found that thermography was far less sensitive than mammography at picking up cancer, and interest in it waned.

Thermography isn’t considered an alternative to mammography. Later studies have found that it isn’t very sensitive at picking up breast cancer. It also has a high false-positive rate, which means that it sometimes “finds” cancerous cells when there aren’t any present.

And in women who have been diagnosed with cancer, the test is ineffective at corroborating these results. In a 1990 study of more than 10,000 women, almost 72 percent of those who developed breast cancer had had a normal thermogram result.

One problem with this test is that it has trouble distinguishing the causes of increased heat. Although areas of warmth in the breast can signal breast cancer, they can also indicate noncancerous diseases such as mastitis.

Mammography can also have false-positive results, and it can sometimes miss breast cancers. Yet it’s still the most effective method for diagnosing breast cancer early.