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.

DITI’s role in breast health is to help in early detection and monitoring of abnormal physiology and the establishment of risk factors for the development or existence of pathology, whether benign or malignant. When used adjunctively with other procedures the best possible evaluation of breast health is made.

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.

Angiogenesis is the physiological process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels. It is necessary to sustain the growth of a tumor. Breast thermography may be the first signal that such a possibility is developing.

All women can benefit from DITI breast screening, particularly younger women (30 - 50) with denser breast tissue.

Approximately 15% of all breast cancers occur in women under 45.

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.

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.

75% of women who get breast cancer have no family history of the disease. 

Regardless of your family history, if a thermogram is abnormal you run a future risk of breast cancer that is 10 times higher than a first order family history of the disease. Thermography has the ability to provide women with a future risk assessment. If discovered, certain thermographic risk markers can warn a woman that she needs to work closely with her doctor with regular checkups to monitor her breast health. 

Why is thermal imaging useful for breast imaging?

Canadian researchers recently confirmed that infrared imaging of breast cancers could detect minute temperature variations related to blood flow and demonstrate abnormal patterns associated with the progression of tumors. These images, or thermograms of the breast, were positive for 83% of breast cancers compared to 61% for clinical breast examination alone and 84% for mammography. The 84% sensitivity rate of mammography alone was increased to 95% when infrared imaging was added. 

Does it hurt to have a scan taken?

No. There is no contact with the body or painful breast compression.

If I have a suspicious mammogram or find a lump in a breast, should I have a thermogram? 

Yes. The information provided by a thermography study can contribute useful additional information which ultimately helps your doctor with case management decisions. It is also important to establish a baseline for future comparison in order to monitor changes and the progress of any treatment.

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.