Mammogram vs. Thermogram Debate
Breast cancer is a rising problem throughout the world today. Women over the age of forty begin to become more at risk for breast cancer. Most people have a family member or know somebody who does have breast cancer. It is a terrible disease, but there are ways to help diagnose and look for the signs of breast cancer. As with all cancers, catching breast cancer early is a great first step to help treating it. Catching cancer too late, depending how far the tumor has progressed, can be fatal. There are many tests out there that can help diagnose, most notable a mammogram and a new technology called a thermogram. There are many schools of thought on both of these tests. There are both benefits and consequences of each test, as well as many pieces of information that women do not know about these tests. All of these things will be addressed in the article below.
Mammograms are the number one way to try to diagnose breast cancer. A mammogram, in its simplest form, is basically an X-Ray of the breast. Mammograms can help women who show no signs of cancer diagnose that they actually may have it. A women should always feel their breast every month for any “lumps,” which can be tumors. Mammograms can help diagnose when you cannot feel those bumps. Mammograms normally take two X-Rays of each breast. Any women over forty should have a mammogram every year. As age goes up, the risk goes up, so it is important to check for it to catch it once it comes to fruition. Research shows that breast cancer death is reduced for those that have a mammogram because they are aware that they have it, while the others may have no idea that they have it.
As with many medical tests, mammograms do have some limitations and risks involved. X-Rays are never good for the body, which is why anyone receiving one always wears a lead apron. Every mammogram a women has actually increases her risk for breast cancer due to radiation. This increase is about one percent per test. If we extrapolate that for a person who takes one mammogram per year, that would mean in ten years, they are ten percent more at risk in addition to the other factors. Limitations include false negatives and positives. The fact of the matter is that just because cancer is found, does not mean that it can be cured. Mammograms can help diagnose this as soon as possible.
Thermograms are new pieces of technology that can also help detect breast cancer. First, let me say that thermograms are not meant to be replacements for mammograms, just in addition to them. Thermograms as its name gives away, uses heat to detect problems in the breast area. There are many reasons to use thermograms. However, they must be in addition to mammograms because no one test out there can say one hundred percent of the time that it can diagnose cancer. Thermograms offer a non-invasive procedure that does not use radiation, but infrared imaging. These tests can help diagnose breast cancer because it looks for things that mammograms do not, which are tissue changes that are normally associated with breast cancer. Thermograms are great for younger women looking to at least check if they have some early signs for cancer. Thermograms are great because they can show things that the X-Ray cannot, but conversely, some forms of breast cancer can only be detected by mammograms.
Mammograms and thermograms are both great ways to help diagnose breast cancer. Mammograms are the standard test. Thermograms are newer and are gaining steam. No test is better than the other, but mammograms give a more definite answer to if the patient actually has breast cancer. Thermograms would be best served to check for potential early signs that can lead to breast cancer. Women should get a mammogram every year, but also have a thermogram since it is non-invasive, has no radiation, and can help detect other changes.
by Tom M
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