Thermography of the female breast: a five-year study in relation to the detection and prognosis of cancer

Abstract

More than 12,000 women have been examined thermographically in the Breast Unit of the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. Of these women 1,464 had biopsy and histology; 363(25 per cent) were found to have carcinoma and of these 68 per cent had abnormal thermograms, 13 per cent has some thermal asymmetry of doubtful significance and 19 per cent had normal thermal patterns. Fifty-seven per cent and 62 per cent of patients with Stage I and Stage II cancer, respectively, had abnormal thermograms whereas 83 per cent of patients with Stage III cancer had abnormal thermograms. Of 1,101 women who had benign lesions, 63 per cent had normal thermal patterns, 15 per cent had thermal asymmetry of doubtful significance and 22 per cent had abnormal thermograms. The subsequent histories of 172 cancer patients examined thermographically have been analysed and three-year survival rates have been correlated with thermography report, the clinical stage of the disease and the histotogical grade (Bloom, 1950) of the excised tumour. The mean three-year survival rates for patients with Stage II or Stage III cancer are 84 per cent for those with normal and 61 per cent for those with abnormal thermograms.