Frequently Asked Questions about
Pink Imaging™
How does breast thermography work?
Does breast thermography replace mammography?
How does breast thermography compare to mammography and other imaging modalitites?
What is high resolution breast thermography?
Who is qualified to take and interpret breast thermography?
What does a breast thermography report include?
Does breast thermography detect Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC)?
Is breast thermography covered by insurance?
What should I expect during a breast thermography session?
What is the purpose of a sympathetic stress test?
What recommendations might be made following an abnormal breast thermogram?
I have breast implants. Can I still get breast thermography?
Nobody in my family has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Why do I need another test?
Is breast thermography approved by the FDA?
Why haven’t I heard of breast thermography before?
What clinical research supports breast thermography?
How does breast thermography work?
Breast thermography measures differences in infrared heat emission from normal breast tissue and benign breast abnormalities (such as fibrocystic disease, cysts, infections and benign tumors) thus differentiating them from breast cancers. This procedure is performed with a high degree of sensitivity and accuracy, providing a non-invasive measurement of the physiology of breast tissue.
Pink Image uses a high resolution, highly-sensitive infrared camera to measure minute differences in infrared heat emission from tumors and the vascular structure they require. Because tumor tissue does not have an intact sympathetic nervous system, it cannot regulate heat loss. When the breast is cooled with small fans in a temperature controlled room, blood vessels of normal tissue respond by constricting to conserve heat while tumor tissue and its blood vessels remains hot. Thus, tumors emit more heat than their surrounding tissues allowing them to be detected by Pink Image’s heat sensing infrared camera.
Breast thermograms show highly specific thermal patterns in each individual woman. They provide a unique "thermal signature" that remains constant over years unless there is a change in an underlying condition. Thus, over time, it is possible to differentiate between cancers and benign conditions. Since the technology has the ability to accurately detect cancers over time, it becomes important to have a baseline early on in a woman's life. For this reason, women should have breast thermography performed as early as age 25.
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Is breast thermography safe?
Unlike many other imaging modalities, breast thermography does not emit any radiation, require any injections, and is completely non-contact and pain-free.
Does breast thermography replace mammography?
No. The two screening modalities are a great complement to each other. Since it has been determined that 1 in 8 women will get breast cancer, we should use every possible means to stop the epidemic! This is best accomplished through early detection. Breast thermography imaging technology provides the earliest detection with exceptional accuracy.
Breast thermography can also provide the necessary screening for the 25-40 age range before an annual mammogram is recommended. This is extremely important for younger women at high risk because breast cancers are particularly aggressive in this age range.
How does breast thermography compare to mammography and other imaging modalitites?
Breast thermography does not emit any radiation, require any injections, and is completely non-contact and pain-free. Breast thermography is based on detecting tumors through minute changes in vascular structure. These tumors and vascular structure emit more heat than normal tissue making them detectable with a high resolution, highly-sensitive infrared camera.
Mammography uses x-rays to differentiate normal tissue from physical tumors and other breast abnormalities based on their densities. It detects tumors that are already of significant size (>1cm in most cases). There is a fair amount of difficulty in reading the mammograms of women who are on hormone replacement, are nursing, or have fibrocystic, large, dense, or enhanced breasts. These conditions do not cause difficulty in reading breast thermograms.
Breast thermography signals, mammography locates, ultrasound confirms, and biopsy establishes diagnosis.
What is high resolution breast thermography?
As with any other imaging modality, the resolution of the equipment is a major factor in its effectiveness. In this case, the resolution of the infrared camera is crucial to detecting the minute changes in vascular activity that are associated with breast cancer. Pink Image’s infrared camera records 600 optical lines of resolution while most other infrared cameras record only 240. When converted to a 2-dimensional image, Pink Image’s camera has about 4 times the resolution of the cameras our competitors use making us leagues ahead of anyone else.
The optical resolution of a camera is correlated to the amount of information the camera is able to capture in each image. For example, a digital camera that captures 6 megapixel images produces higher quality prints than a digital camera that only captures 2 megapixel images.
Other widely available cameras only offer around 200 optical lines of resolution. While these cameras are acceptable for imaging other parts of the body, Pink Image believes they do not provide the quality or sensitivity needed for breast thermography. It is imperative to ask a breast thermography clinic what type of camera they use and how many lines of optical resolution it scans.
Does breast thermography detect Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC)?
IBC is the most malignant form of breast cancer. While rare (less than 3% of all breast cancers) it metastasizes quickly and widely. Due to the inflammatory nature of the disease, thermography is the ideal detection modality because of the large amount of heat emitted by the inflammation. Mammography has great difficulty in detecting this type of breast cancer because there is no real detectable mass. Thus thermography is a perfect first line of defense against IBC especially for women 25-40 where breast cancer can be most aggressive. For women over the age of 40, thermography as an adjunct to mammography helps to ensure that no woman falls through the cracks.
Is breast thermography covered by insurance?
While breast thermography was approved by the FDA in 1982 as an adjunct to mammography, it is still not covered by health insurance. Promote change! Pink Image has kept the cost below $200 to make breast thermography available to most women.
What should I expect during a breast thermography session?
A typical breast thermography session involves a simple 20 minute non-invasive, no-radiation, completely painless procedure. You will be welcomed into a cool, temperature controlled room where you will be asked to disrobe from the waist up. This allows your body to shed false heat patterns from clothing. Four image views will be captured pre and post sympathetic stress test to ensure all angles of the breast and lymph are scanned. This is a significantly more thorough imaging technique compared to traditional imaging where only a smaller portion and angle of the breast are recorded, thus allowing for breast and lymph tissue to be completely ignored altogether. It’s that simple!
What is the purpose of a sympathetic stress test?
It is advantageous to initiate a sympathetic stress test when performing breast thermography. This may allow for a larger thermal contrast between normal, healthy breast tissue and possibly diseased tissue. It is performed by blowing cool air at the breast for 5 minutes. Many other clinics do not perform this step in breast thermography.
What recommendations might be made following an abnormal breast thermogram?
Following an abnormal breast thermogram, Pink Image’s highly experienced Medical Doctor usually recommends an ultrasound, or, in more abnormal cases, a mammogram. Of course, something as simple as a CBE (Clinical Breast Exam) or as involved as a breast MRI are also possibilities.
Changes in lifestyle, increase frequency of CBE or BSE (breast self exam), and close monitoring are all courses of action that can help avoid or detect breast disease early.
I have breast implants. Can I still get breast thermography?
Yes. Breast thermography is very helpful for women with breast implants as it does not affect the accuracy of the exam. Mammograms are sometimes unreliable because it is difficult to image breast tissue.
Nobody in my family has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Why do I need another test?
The majority of women diagnosed today with breast cancer are the first members of their family to contract this devastating disease. It has been found that an abnormal breast thermogram is 10 times more significant as a risk factor than first order family history.
Who is qualified to take and interpret breast thermography?
There are only 2 recognized thermography boards in the United States. In 1971, the American Academy of Thermology was established by a group of M.D's. In the late 1980s, a group of Chiropractors set up the International Academy of Clinical Thermography. All respected breast thermography clinics and interpretors are members of only these boards. Pink Image is a member of both boards. There are other boards, academies, and colleges out there. Don't be fooled by fancy names!
Pink Image interpreters received all training and were certified under Dr. Hobbins. Dr Hobbins is the original interpretator of breast thermography and all the respected interpretors in the United States studied under him. He has 35+ years of breast thermography experience and has read over 175,000 scans to date! Make sure to ask who is interpreting your scans and who they studied under, and are they board certified with the International Academy of Clinical Thermography or the American Academy of Thermology.
Is breast thermography approved by the FDA?
Yes! Breast thermography was FDA approved for use as an adjunctive breast cancer screening procedure in 1982.
Why haven’t I heard of breast thermography before?
Some may have heard of breast thermography in past years. Breast thermography has become increasing widespread though tremendous advances in technology over the past 20 years. Pink Image is proud to offer the finest example of these advances with its high resolution, highly-sensitive infrared camera.
What does a breast thermography report include?
All reports should provide a clear dignosis graded on a scale from TH-1 (Normal) to TH-5 (Abnormal). This is the most important aspect of the report. Make sure the clinic provides a TH grade, not just a "normal" or "abnormal" reading. This is not a complete diagnosis for breast thermography. It should also include clear printouts of all infrared scans, explanations of criteria used to determine findings, and clear recommendations should follow-up be required. We are available to discuss your report at any time.
What clinical research supports breast thermography?
At least five important studies published between 1980 and 2003 document that breast thermography is a major advancement in identifying breast cancers not only with greater sensitivity and specificity, but also years earlier than with any other scientifically tested medical technology. Please refer to our research page for many more published studies & articles.
* Cancer, 1980, Volume 56, 45-51. (17) Fifty-eight thousand patients with breast complaints were examined between 1965 and 1977. Twelve hundred and forty-five patients with abnormal Th3 mammotherms had normal breasts by mammography, ultrasound, physical exam, and biopsy. Thirty-eight percent of women with normal breasts and 44% of those with mastopathy developed biopsy proven breast cancer within five years. Ninety percent of patients with Th4 or 5 had diagnosis of cancer made on their first visit.
* Biomedical Thermology, 1982, 279-301, Alan Liss, Inc, New York. Michel Gautherie, MD, followed 10,834 women over 2 to 10 years by clinical examination, mammography and thermography. (15) The study followed 387 people with normal breast examinations and mammograms but Th3 thermographic scores for an average of less than three years. In those without symptoms, 33% developed cancer. In those with cystic mastitis, cancer developed in 41%. These were predominately women between 30 to 45 years of age where breast cancer is the leading cause of death.
* Thermology, 1986, Volume 1, 170-73. (18) The effectiveness of mammography, clinical palpation, and thermography were compared in the detection of breast cancer. Thermography had the best reliability, but the best results were found when all three were used together.
* The Breast Journal, Volume 4, 1998, 245-51. (19) Keyserlingk et al documented 85% sensitivity in diagnosing breast cancer using clinical examination and mammography together. This increased to 98% when breast thermography was added.
* American Journal of Radiology, January 2003, 263-69. (16) The journal reported that thermography has 99% sensitivity in identifying breast cancer with single examinations and limited views. Thus, a negative thermogram (Th1 or Th2) in this setting is powerful evidence that cancer is not present.
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