Breast Thermography
Benefits of Breast Thermography
Neither thermography nor mammography can diagnose breast cancer. They are both FDA approved screening tests for breast cancer, which reveal different aspects of the disease process and allow for further exploration. Thermography is a risk marker for breast pathology.
For more information about Thermography, check out www.breastthermography.com.
If you would like to talk to us more about this procedure or schedule an exam, please call McMinn Clinic at (205) 868-1313.
Recently, Dr. McMinn was interviewed by Fox News, in a feature story about the breast cancer screening tool. To see the interview, please click here:
http://www.myfoxal.com:80/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5950114&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.5.1.
Thermograms More User-Friendly than Mammograms
Thermography has been known to detect breast cancer as much as 10 years before a tumor develops.
The American Cancer Society's (ACS) statistics on breast cancer continue to soar. Every three minutes in the United States, another woman is diagnosed and the disease continues to claim the lives of more than 40,000 women, annually. Now, more than ever, prevention is considered more valuable than cure, and women are beginning to educate themselves on their options for annual check-ups.
There are two FDA-approved screening tools for breast cancer screening, in the U.S. , today and most people only know about one of them - mammography. The other tool, thermography, is not as well-known, measures thermal emissions emanating from the body, a key indicator of health. Available here since the 1960s, it was approved in 1982 as an adjunct to mammography. This same technology (digital infrared thermal imaging) has been used by the military for surveillance and night vision. Dramatic improvements have occurred in the technology, which now includes highly sensitive, state-of-the-art infrared cameras and sophisticated computers. The American College of Clinical Thermology (ACCT), which promotes scientific research, also provides the training and accreditation technicians and practitioners. Peter Leando, Ph.D., an ACCT training officer, at Duke University, describes how Thermography reveals early signs of inflammation, lymph activity and abnormal vascular and physiology changes. " Cancer stimulates the production of new blood vessels that cause vascular dilation, increased blood supply and heat. The infrared camera images this abnormal blood supply to cancerous tumors. To those skilled in interpreting such images, these vessels look different and indicate abnormal development".
Doctor James McMinn at McMinn Clinic Homewood is an enthusiastic proponent of breast thermography. According to Dr. McMinn, "about one in every eight women will get breast cancer in her life and yet, in my practice I see a significant proportion of women who are not being screened at all, or who are inadequately screened." Many women just refuse to get a mammogram for various reasons. Aside from the obvious aversion to the pain and squeezing, others are concerned about the cumulative effects of radiation adding up over many years of mammograms. "I know of one patient who experienced two ruptured implants from mammograms. Some women have very dense breasts which compromise the accuracy of a mammogram, making thermography ideally suited for women with fibrous breasts, and women with implants". It is painless, with no squeezing, and there is no radiation exposure.
As a strong advocate of preventive medicine and screening, I feel that thermography has an important role to play in these women and I spend time with my patients, educating them about breast cancer prevention.
Dr. McMinn goes on to point out that thermography may often pick up a developing problems years before mammography. Mammography is designed to screen for a mass. However, the mass has to be about a centimeter in diameter before it becomes detectable. By that time the cancer has been in the woman's breast for many years. On the other hand, thermography is based on an entirely different technology which looks for the temperature "signature" of a developing cancer in its early stages. When it comes to breast cancer, early detection is key. "We certainly want to find the cancer before it grows, and spreads to other tissues. "
Contact McMinn Clinic (205) 868-1313. Visit HealthyThermalImaging.com. For more information on thermography, visit the American College of Clinical Thermology at ThermologyOnline.org