|
Tuesday, 10 November 2009 22:21 |
|
Even as the rates of cancer are growing in many populations, technological advances are leading to earlier detection, less invasive treatment options, and higher rates of survival. One cancer that still claims thousands of lives every year is breast cancer. A huge push in public education and funding has lead to widespread mammography screenings. Mammograms, while an adequate detection tool, can lead to false positives, may not catch cancers until later stages, and are not as accurate for some types of breast tissue. In addition, they are painful and many women avoid them. A new technology that is growing and provides much better cancer detection involves thermal imaging with infrared cameras.
The use of medical thermal imaging cameras is growing in popularity and the advancement can provide earlier detection and increased survival rates of cure and survival. Thermal imaging or infrared cameras can detect breast cancer much earlier and the density of breast tissue has no affect on the outcome of the test. In addition, there is no painful compression of breast tissue to produce the thermal images. With a painless test available more people may get regular screenings and breast cancer incidence can be reduced.
A recent study in Spain published online in the October 26 issues of ""Journal of the National Cancer Institute"", indicates that the overall incidence of invasive breast cancer can be reduced once widespread screening is implemented. The study showed that after years of rising invasive breast cancer rates in the 1980's and 1990's, an effort to promote widespread screening programs eventually led to a decrease in invasive cases starting in 2001. Although invasive breast cancer rates may initially rise slightly due to increased screening, eventually widespread screening causes the rate to fall significantly as cancers are caught earlier and treated more easily.
 Thermal imaging can produce false positives at about the same rate as mammograms, but the ability of thermal imaging cameras to detect breast cancer as much as a decade earlier overrides that minor drawback. Early detection leads to less invasive treatments and less chance of cancer spreading to other parts of the body. More than 95% of women who are diagnosed and treated for early breast cancer survive and are cancer free after five years. Early detection can lead to less chemotherapy and radiation treatments and less dependency on drugs like tamoxifen that can have dangerous side effects. The added advantages of no radiation exposure for a thermal imaging screening and the end of the necessity to painfully compress breast tissue for accurate screening should lead many more people to seek screenings.
With the spread of infrared cameras to screen for breast cancer, earlier detection and less invasive treatments could lead to a decrease in the number of deaths from breast cancer. In addition thermal imaging cameras can provide women a pain free testing experience which may greatly increase the numbers of women being screened. Early widespread screening has been shown to reduce the overall incidence of invasive breast cancers in a population.
by Lee Wright |
Resources 
