The most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in North America is breast cancer, affecting one in every eight women. Despite treatment advances that have reduced mortality, this disease remains the second leading cause of cancer-induced death, being second to lung cancer.
Let’s face it: mammography has its limitations. An evolving breast cancer, like its surrounding breast tissue, appears white on the x-ray. This may make lesions difficult to detect in young women as well as in women with very dense breasts; in these cases a tumor may not cast a significant shadow until it is quite large. For primarily these reasons, heavy dependence is placed on the mammogram’s calcification patterns as a clinical marker for potential cancer cell development within the breast parenchyma. Unfortunately, some cancers are so aggressive that they can spread quickly before they can be detected with a routine mammogram. Despite these limitations, mammography is still viewed as the gold standard for breast cancer screening and detection. Additionally, we must consider that even the more sensitive (and much more expensive) MRI study is unable to clearly distinguish the difference between malignant/aggressive tumors and those tumors that will never harm the patient. In the end, mammography remains a pretty crude tool.
The question which begs to be asked here is: have we become so entrenched in the diagnosis of cancer that we may well be impeding the development and acceptance of better tests that can more accurately distinguish between aggressive tumors and tumors that are unlikely ever to lead to cancer? Another question to ask ourselves is: Is it not time to better support the research and the pursuit for a more diagnostic technology which can ultimately decrease the unwanted phenomenon of overtreatment and better determine tumor cancer risk? Such a screening test is completely non-invasive and exists in this country as well as all over the world. It is called Thermography. Rather than detecting anatomical changes in breast morphology, Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI), also known simply as Thermography, detects changes on a physiologic level. Let me explain. A portion of the heat that is naturally released from the body is in the form of infrared radiation. As cancer develops in the breast, cellular abnormalities occur. Physiologic changes which take place during a cancer's evolution such as increased blood flow and increased cellular activity, contribute to our released infrared heat. Such abnormal cellular changes are what Thermography detects. Similar to the 'Pap' smear, which is universally used to identify the abnormal cells that can lead to cervical cancer, the highly sophisticated camera and computerized system used in Thermography assists to differentiate benign tissue from malignant tissue due to the difference in their respective infrared signal. Get it?
Improved methods to detect and diagnose breast cancer early, when it is most curable, are required if a significant impact on morbidity and mortality from breast cancer is to be made in this country. The Cometa Wellness Center brought Thermography to the Greater Baltimore area in 2005. Our cameras are state of the art and our technicians are well educated and certified in this field. In addition to offering DITI for breast cancer screening, full body thermal imaging is also available at our Thermography Center located within The Cometa Wellness Center in our new location in Cockeysville, Maryland. A compilation of citations pertinent to thermography is available upon request. Please click on the Thermography link here or above to read more about Thermography and to receive your discount coupon.
Ariane Cometa MD, the holistic doc
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