Thermography use as a Predictive Tool in Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Thermography is a noninvasive diagnostic technique that measures thermal field and temperature distribution of a targeted surface and generates thermal patterns in the form of a color map. Even though thermography has been already used in detection of breast cancer, its predictive value has not been fully solved yet. The aim of our study was to evaluate the predictive role of thermography in the process of chemically induced mammary carcinogenesis in female Sprague Dawley rats. Breast cancer was induced to 20 female Sprague Dawley rats by 2 doses of N-Methyl-N-Nitrosourea (50 mg.kg-1 intraperitoneal) on the 43rd and the 50th postnatal day. Digital infrared camera with a resolution was used to evaluate the thermal patterns of ventral part of the body. Symmetrical body areas were monitored to detect temperature patterns of intact breast in compare to potential affected one. Only tumors developing non-parallel were further evaluated. Most developed breast tumors were characterized as ductal carcinomas in situ. 19/28 tumors were characterized by the increased temperature before their appearance. 9/28 breast tumors showed either no temperature difference or decrease of the temperature of the place with the potential cluster of neoplastic transform cells before tumor appearance diagnosed by the palpation. The temperature increase ≥ 0.5°C was seen in 38% ductal carcinoma in situ forms and the temperature decrease ≥ 0.5°C in 11% ductal in situ forms. Thermography could be used as an effective noninvasive predictive tool in breast cancer diagnosis. However, more studies are required to describe the potential of this predictive method.