Can a thermogram diagnose breast cancer?
A – Screening, whether by thermogram, mammogram or any other means, is not diagnosis. Both thermography and mammography demonstrate abnormalities indicating the possibility of the presence of cancer, as well as a host of other breast conditions. These clinical findings require differential diagnosis. Only laboratory confirmation of abnormal cell morphology can make the correct diagnosis of cancer. Q – You recommend that if the thermogram suggests cancerous tissue may be present, that one follow up with a mammogram. Why? A – Because thermography is a functional test, mammography is an anatomic test. If the functional test is suspicious, then you want to look at the anatomy. Often times, thermography catches breast cancer sooner than it can be felt by palpation. Mammography can look for a mass that is still too small to be felt. Even mammography considers a “small” tumor to be 2 cm in diameter (1 inch = 2.5 cm), which is a large mass of cells. So if we see something suspicious on a therm
