A Personal Note on Breast Thermography from Dr. Mylinh Vo

As I am writing this note to you, breast cancer is still the leading cause of death among women 35-54 of age in the US. For women over 55, breast cancer is second only to heart disease as the primary cause of death. And yet, all of us still don’t quite know where we are with this on-going battle which threatens millions of women across the country.

Incredible efforts in medical researches are still on-going to find the cure; meanwhile the rest of us needs to rely on breast self examination, clinician examination, mammograms, ultrasounds, MRI….to detect cancer at its earliest stages as soon as possible to prevent the progression of this disease. Unfortunately, we still miss up to 20% of cancer cases in women over the age of 55 and up to 40% in younger women based on the recent statistics.  

I now offer you ThermoBreastScan—The use of Digital Infrared Imaging/ThermoBreastScan is based on the principle that metabolic activity and vascular circulation in both pre-cancerous tissue and the area surrounding a developing breast cancer are almost always higher than in normal breast tissue. In an ever-increasing need for nutrients, cancerous tumors increase circulation to their cells by holding open existing blood vessels, opening dormant vessels, and creating new ones (neoangiogenesis). This process frequently results in an increase in regional surface temperatures of the breast. ThermoBreastScan uses ultra-sensitive medical infrared cameras and sophisticated computers to detect, analyze, and produce high-resolution diagnostic images of these temperature variations. Because of DII’s extreme sensitivity, these temperature variations may be among the earliest signs of breast cancer and/or a pre-cancerous state of the breast (when used in combination with mammograms, it will help us identify abnormal vascular changes before a tumor even forms. ThermoBreastScan has been shown to detect cancer up to 8-10 years before it even shows up on a mammogram (by the time a tumor shows up as a 1cm size mass on a mammogram, it already has more than 4 billion cancer cells!). A thermogram will help us see what a breast mammogram (X-ray) or a breast ultrasound can not see. Mammography and ultrasound provide us useful anatomical attributes of the breast tissue (i.e. “lumps”). A thermogram provides us useful information on any physiological changes of breast tissues. Digital Infrared Imaging technology detects any seed of inflammation before the disease process can even begin. It is used as a screening tool just like mammography to alert physicians to potential areas of concern in the breasts. ThermoBreastScan analyzes the physiological features of the breasts—blood flow and vascularization, as well as dynamic temperature changes, which can occur during the first stage of breast cancer development. ThermoBreastScan is a valuable adjunctive tool for early warning signs of any breast diseases. 

ThermoBreastScan (Digital Infrared Imaging) is safe, non-invasive, and doesn’t expose the woman’s breast to any harmful radiation. Because many young women tend to have dense breast tissue which regular mammogram can’t visualize abnormalities very well, ThermoBreastScan can be an excellent alternative. Because many menopausal women who are on hormone replacement therapy tend to have denser breast tissue, ThermoBreastScan can offer a much better in-depth visualization of their tissues; something a mammogram will have difficulty with.  ThermoBreastScan is going to be useful in detecting early signs of Inflammatory Breast Cancer—a unique cancer which can start as a skin rash on the breast. For those with breast implants, this technology provides no breast compression at all while providing useful information on their breast tissue status.

ThermoBreastScan offers you 12 different thermographic views of the breasts and with its high sensitivity and specificity; I strongly feel it should be a part of your current yearly breast cancer screen panel. There is a chance you can be a part of the 20%-40% statistics whose cancer gets missed under the current screening protocol.  Why take that chance? My sister is a breast cancer survivor herself and she did all her yearly mammograms as advised prior to her diagnosis. But her tumor still got missed from the current screening (previous mammograms couldn’t detect the growing mass in her dense breast) and her health hasn’t been the same since her radiation treatments. I personally believe ThermoBreastScan is a crucial component which will complete the breast cancer screen panel that every woman should take yearly. By taking a ThermoBreastScan, we stay true to what it means by early detection. By taking a ThermoBreastScan, you are one step closer to the cure than you ever think.  

EARLY DETECTION SAVES LIVES! Early detection? Think ThermoBreastScan, the first line of defense, for every woman.

By Dr. Mylinh Vo, ND, ABAAHP