A Comparative Review of Thermography as a Breast Cancer Screening Technique

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer of women in North America. Despite advances in treatment that have reduced mortality, breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer induced death. Several well established tools are used to screen for breast cancer including clinical breast exams, mammograms, and ultrasound. Thermography was first introduced as a screening tool in 1956 and was initially well accepted. However, after a 1977 study found thermography to lag behind other screening tools, the medical community lost interest in this diagnostic approach. This review discusses each screening tool with a focus brought to thermography. No single tool provides excellent predictability; however, a combination that incorporates thermography may boost both sensitivity and specificity. In light of technological advances and maturation of the thermographic industry, additional research is required to confirm the potential of this technology to provide an effective non-invasive, low risk adjunctive tool for the early detection of breast cancer.

• Publication year

  2009

• Venue

  Integrative Cancer Therapies

• Publication date

  2009-02-17

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1177/1534735408326171PMID 19223370
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Screening for Breast CancerScreening for Breast Cancer

  2008cited by this paper
• Medical Infrared Imaging

  2007cited by this paper
• Cancer Statistics, 2007

  2007cited by this paper
• Medical devices and systems

  2007influential reference
• Systematic Review: The Long-Term Effects of False-Positive Mammograms

  2007cited by this paper
• Diagnostic mammography and ultrasonography for palpable and nonpalpable breast cancer in women aged 30 to 39 years

  2007cited by this paper
• Risk factors for induction of breast cancer by X-rays and their implications for breast screening.

  2007cited by this paper
• Screening mammography and risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers: a case-control study.

  2006cited by this paper
• Enhanced biological effectiveness of low energy X-rays and implications for the UK breast screening programme.

  2006cited by this paper
• Essentials of Radiology, 2nd ed

  2006cited by this paper
• Mammographic screening before age 50 years in the UK: comparison of the radiation risks with the mortality benefits

  2005cited by this paper
• The incremental contribution of clinical breast examination to invasive cancer detection in a mammography screening program.

  2005cited by this paper
• Practical Use Of Ultrasound at a Dedicated Breast Center

  2005cited by this paper
• Screening and diagnostic mammograms: why the gold standard does not shine more brightly.

  2005cited by this paper
• Screening for breast cancer.

  2005cited by this paper
• Nondestructive testing of the human breast: the validity of dynamic stress testing in medical infrared breast imaging

  2004cited by this paper
• The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Breast Cancer: A Practical Manual for Understanding, Prevention and Care

  2004cited by this paper
• Relationship Between Microvessel Density and Thermographic Hot Areas in Breast Cancer

  2003cited by this paper
• Efficacy of computerized infrared imaging analysis to evaluate mammographically suspicious lesions.

  2003cited by this paper
• Relationship between microvessel density and thermographic hot areas in breast cancer

  2003cited by this paper
• Clinical practice. Mammographic screening for breast cancer.

  2003cited by this paper
• Relationship between mammographic density and the risk of breast cancer in japanese women: a case-control study

  2003cited by this paper
• Using sonography to screen women with mammographically dense breasts.

  2003cited by this paper
• Mammographic Screening for Breast Cancer

  2003cited by this paper
• Infrared imaging: making progress in fulfilling its medical promise

  2002cited by this paper
• Routine screening mammography: how important is the radiation-risk side of the benefit-risk equation?

  2002cited by this paper
• Breast cancer: early detection needed.

  2001cited by this paper
• Statistical analysis of healthy and malignant breast thermography.

  2001cited by this paper
• Functional infrared imaging of the breast

  2000influential reference
• Is mammography indicated for women with defective BRCA genes? Implications of recent scientific advances for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of hereditary breast cancer.

  2000cited by this paper
• The potential of dynamic area telethermometry in assessing breast cancer

  2000cited by this paper
• The important role of infrared imaging in breast cancer

  2000cited by this paper
• Clinical breast examination for screening of asymptomatic women: the importance of clinical breast examination for breast cancer detection.

  2000cited by this paper
• Applying dynamic thermography in the diagnosis of breast cancer.

  2000cited by this paper
• Does This Patient Have Breast Cancer? The Screening Clinical Breast Examination: Should It Be Done? How?

  2000cited by this paper
• The rational clinical examination. Does this patient have breast cancer? The screening clinical breast examination: should it be done? How?

  1999cited by this paper
• Ten-year risk of false positive screening mammograms and clinical breast examinations.

  1998cited by this paper
• A reappraisal of the use of infrared thermal image analysis in medicine

  1998cited by this paper
• Clinical thermal imaging today

  1998cited by this paper
• Effect of age, breast density, and family history on the sensitivity of first screening mammography.

  1996cited by this paper
• Essentials of Radiology

  1996cited by this paper
• Nitric oxide synthase activity in human breast cancer.

  1995cited by this paper
• Quantitative classification of mammographic densities and breast cancer risk: results from the Canadian National Breast Screening Study.

  1995cited by this paper
• Evaluation of a palpable breast mass.

  1993cited by this paper
• Breast Thermography Is a Noninvasive Prognostic Procedure That Predicts Tumor Growth Rate in Breast Cancer Patients

  1993cited by this paper
• Breast cancer (3).

  1992cited by this paper
• Breast cancer (1)

  1992cited by this paper
• The value of risk factors in screening for breast cancer.

  1985cited by this paper
• The value of risk factors in screening for breast cancer.

  1985cited by this paper
• Radiation risk from mammography: is it clinically significant?

  1984cited by this paper
• Breast thermography and cancer risk prediction

  1980cited by this paper
• THERMOPATHOLOGY OF BREAST CANCER: MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF IN VIVO TEMPERATURE AND BLOOD FLOW

  1980cited by this paper
• Thermography, mammography, and clinical examination in breast cancer screening. Review of 16,000 studies.

  1977cited by this paper
• Criteria for obtaining and interpreting breast thermograms

  1976cited by this paper
• The screening of well women for the early detection of breast cancer using clinical examination with thermography and mammography

  1974cited by this paper
• Task force.

  1974cited by this paper
• Breast thermography after four years and 10000 studies.

  1972cited by this paper
• Review of Medical Physiology

  1969cited by this paper
• International Seminars in Surgical Oncology the Evolving Role of the Dynamic Thermal Analysis in the Early Detection of Breast Cancer Circadian Rhythmbreast Cancerscreening and Dynamic Thermal Analysis

  year unknowncited by this paper

• Accuracy of infrared thermography in the diagnosis of canine mammary cancer.

  2026cites this paper
• Utility of Infrared Thermography in Assessing Synovitis in Rheumatoid Arthritis: An Observational Study

  2026cites this paper
• Lightweight deep learning model with spatial attention for accurate and efficient breast cancer prediction

  2026cites this paper
• Various factors affecting the detection of malignant tumors using infrared thermography: a numerical study

  2025influential citation
• JS divergence Weibull embedding for very early breast cancer diagnosis

  2025cites this paper
• Preparation and Evaluation of Tadalafil-Loaded Nanoemulgel for Transdermal Delivery in Cold-Induced Vasoconstriction: A Potential Therapy for Raynaud’s Phenomenon

  2025cites this paper
• Wearable and Flexible Sensor Devices: Recent Advances in Designs, Fabrication Methods, and Applications

  2025cites this paper
• Continuous biosignal acquisition beyond the limit of epidermal turnover

  2025cites this paper
• Review of Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Breast Cancer Detection with Different Modalities: Mammography, Ultrasound, and Thermography Images

  2025cites this paper
• Induced Current Electro-Thermal Imaging for Breast Tumor Detection: A Numerical and Experimental Study

  2024cites this paper
• Evaluating Clinical Efficacy of Thermalytix as a Breast Cancer Screening Tool in Young Women

  2024cites this paper
• Conversations in Breast Cancer Screening: An Exploration of Age, Density, and Emerging Technologies

  2024cites this paper
• Thermal imaging analysis of temperature distribution on the human skin during strength training exercises

  2024cites this paper
• Harnessing the power of Microscale AcoustoFluidics: A perspective based on BAW cancer diagnostics

  2024cites this paper
• Diagnostic Biomarker for Breast Cancer Applying Rayleigh Low-Rank Embedding Thermography

  2023cites this paper
• Hue-Preserved Quantile-Based Global Contrast Enhancement of Breast Thermograms for Abnormality Detection

  2023cites this paper
• A Review of Skin-Wearable Sensors for Non-Invasive Health Monitoring Applications

  2023cites this paper
• Applicability of thermography for cancer diagnosis in small animals.

  2023cites this paper
• Mammography using low-frequency electromagnetic fields with deep learning

  2023cites this paper
• Real-time monitoring of focused ultrasound therapy using intelligence-based thermography: A feasibility study.

  2023cites this paper
• Termografia como Ferramenta de Avaliação Durante o Tratamento Neoadjuvante para Câncer de Mama

  2023cites this paper
• Automated Breast Boundary Segmentation to Improve the Accuracy of Identifying Abnormalities in Breast Thermograms

  2023cites this paper
• Detection of Breast Cancer Using Infrared Thermal Images for Improved Accuracy by Using Random Forest and Multilayer Perceptron

  2023cites this paper
• In Situ Nanomechanical Characterization Techniques for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces and Their Building Blocks

  2023cites this paper
• Applying thermodynamics as an applicable approach to cancer diagnosis, evaluation, and therapy: A review

  2023cites this paper
• Estimation of Size and Depth of a Breast Tumor Using Thermal Analysis; A Numerical Study

  2023cites this paper
• Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and their effect on the skin determined using IR thermography

  2023cites this paper
• Utilizing Infrared Thermography for Assessing Breast Cancer Treatment Progression

  2023cites this paper
• Breast cancer detection in thermograms using a hybrid of GA and GWO based deep feature selection method

  2023cites this paper
• Introducing a novel deep convolutional neural network to detect skin cancer in thermographic images

  2023cites this paper
• MMSHRs: a morphology model of suspicious hyperthermic regions for degree of severity prediction from breast thermograms

  2022cites this paper
• State of the Art in Smart Portable, Wearable, Ingestible and Implantable Devices for Health Status Monitoring and Disease Management

  2022cites this paper
• Long-Term Skin Temperature Changes after Breast Cancer Radiotherapy

  2022cites this paper
• Comparison of the Thermal Reaction of Patients after Conserving Procedures and after Mastectomy to the Radiation Dose Obtained during Radiotherapy

  2022cites this paper
• Automated vascular analysis of breast thermograms with interpretable features

  2022cites this paper
• Thermography for disease detection in livestock: A scoping review

  2022cites this paper
• Twelve-Month Evaluation of Temperature Effects of Radiotherapy in Patients after Mastectomy

  2022cites this paper
• BreastCNN: A Novel Layer-based Convolutional Neural Network for Breast Cancer Diagnosis in DMR-Thermogram Images

  2022cites this paper
• Breast Cancer Detection in Saudi Arabian Women Using Hybrid Machine Learning on Mammographic Images

  2022cites this paper
• A Review of Spectroscopic and Non-Spectroscopic Techniques for Diagnosing Breast Cancer.

  2022cites this paper
• Developing a Gaussian Model-based Histogram Equalization Technique for Enhancement of Breast Thermography Images

  2022cites this paper
• Screening of breast cancer from thermogram images by edge detection aided deep transfer learning model

  2022cites this paper
• Early Detection and Parameter Estimation of Tongue Tumour Using Contact Thermometry in a Closed Mouth

  2022cites this paper
• A Breast Cancer Detection System Using Metasurfaces With a Convolution Neural Network: A Feasibility Study

  2022cites this paper
• Effective breast tumor location estimation via a robust time-varying thermographic model

  2022cites this paper
• Breast tumour detection using machine learning: review of selected methods from 2015 to 2021

  2022cites this paper
• Thermography as a Breast Cancer Screening Technique: A Review Article

  2022cites this paper
• The Use of Infrared Thermography in the Assessment of Thermal Reaction of Patients Treated with Radiotherapy after Breast-Conserving Procedures

  2022cites this paper
• A Flexible Wearable Thermography System Based on Bioheat Microsensors Network for Early Breast Cancer Detection: IoT Technology

  2022cites this paper
• Breast Cancer Early Detection with Time Series Classification

  2022cites this paper
• Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation of Breast Images-Comparative Study of Mammogram and Thermogram

  2022cites this paper
• Automated thermal imaging monitors the local response to cervical cancer brachytherapy

  2022cites this paper
• A Diagnostic Biomarker for Breast Cancer Screening via Hilbert Embedded Deep Low-Rank Matrix Approximation

  2021cites this paper
• Wearable and Implantable Soft Bioelectronics: Device Designs and Material Strategies.

  2021cites this paper
• Evaluation of Cancer Progression Using Dynamic Entropy Changes and Thermography

  2021cites this paper
• Cálculo do perfil de temperatura em um modelo tridimensional da mama para análise paramétrica da influência da posição e do tamanho de um tumor maligno

  2021cites this paper
• Materials, Devices, and Applications for Wearable and Implantable Electronics

  2021cites this paper
• Enhanced Segmentation of Inflamed ROI to Improve the Accuracy of Identifying Benign and Malignant Cases in Breast Thermogram

  2021cites this paper
• Thermal Characteristics of Breast Surface Temperature in Healthy Women

  2021cites this paper
• SPAER: Sparse Deep Convolutional Autoencoder Model to Extract Low Dimensional Imaging Biomarkers for Early Detection of Breast Cancer Using Dynamic Thermography

  2021cites this paper
• Correlation between Isotherms and Isodoses in Breast Cancer Radiotherapy—First Study

  2021cites this paper
• An Overview of Thermal Infrared Imaging-Based Screenings during Pandemic Emergencies

  2021cites this paper
• Deep convolutional neural networks for classifying breast cancer using infrared thermography

  2021cites this paper
• Early breast tumor detection utilizing thermal time-response imaging

  2021cites this paper
• Predicting cancer cells progression via entropy generation based on AR and ARMA models

  2021cites this paper
• A Non-Invasive Breast Cancer Detection System Using FBG Thermal Sensor Array: A Feasibility Study

  2021cites this paper
• The Use of Thermal Imaging in the Evaluation of Temperature Effects of Radiotherapy in Patients after Mastectomy—First Study

  2021cites this paper
• AIM for Breast Thermography

  2021cites this paper
• Towards Digital Twins Driven Breast Cancer Detection

  2021cites this paper
• Recent Advances in Development of New Technology in Pre and Intra Operative Breast Cancer Diagnoses

  2021cites this paper
• Lesion Detection and Classification for Breast Cancer Diagnosis Based on Deep CNNs from Digital Mammographic Data

  2021cites this paper
• Detailed Review on Breast Cancer Diagnosis Using Different ML Algorithms

  2021cites this paper
• Comment on “Evaluating the efficiency of infrared breast thermography for early breast cancer risk prediction in asymptomatic population”

  2021cites this paper
• Potential of Infrared Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection: A Critical Evaluation

  2021cites this paper
• A Computational Method for the Estimation of the Geometrical and Thermophysical Properties of Tumor Using Contact Thermometry

  2021cites this paper
• A Systematic Review of Breast Cancer Detection Using Thermography and Neural Networks

  2020cites this paper
• Optimizing Infrared Camera Resolution for Small Object Detection using Subpixel Rendering and PIFS in Multiresolution Image Analysis

  2020cites this paper
• Automatic breast cancer detection on breast thermograms

  2020cites this paper
• Breast cancer, screening and diagnostic tools: All you need to know.

  2020cites this paper
• Portable uncooled shutterless camera operating in the long-wavelength infrared range; part II: digital image processing

  2020cites this paper
• Wearable device for thermotherapies

  2020cites this paper
• Automatic Breast Thermography Segmentation Based on Fully Convolutional Neural Networks

  2020cites this paper
• Applications of Computational Methods in Biomedical Breast Cancer Imaging Diagnostics: A Review

  2020cites this paper
• Personalized risk prediction for breast cancer pre-screening using artificial intelligence and thermal radiomics

  2020cites this paper
• Automatic breast thermography images classification based on deep neural networks

  2020cites this paper
• Detecting Vasodilation as Potential Diagnostic Biomarker in Breast Cancer Using Deep Learning-Driven Thermomics

  2020cites this paper
• Thermalytix

  2020cites this paper
• An introduction to the Cyrcadia Breast Monitor: A wearable breast health monitoring device

  2020cites this paper
• Quantitative human interpretation for breast thermography

  2020cites this paper
• Breast cancer detection using thermal images

  2020cites this paper
• Polarisation changes in guided infrared thermography using silver halide poly-crystalline mid-infrared fibre bundle

  2020cites this paper
• Inflammatory Biomarkers and Breast Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review of the Evidence and Future Potential for Intervention Research

  2020cites this paper
• ROI Extraction in Thermographic Breast Images Using Genetic Algorithms

  2020cites this paper
• Optimizing Infrared Camera Resolution for Small Object Detection using Subpixel Rendering and PIFS in Multiresolution Image Analysis

  2020cites this paper
• Thermal Imaging - An Emerging Modality for Breast Cancer Detection: A Comprehensive Review

  2020cites this paper
• A Computational Method to Assist the Diagnosis of Breast Disease Using Dynamic Thermography

  2020cites this paper
• Energy analysis of PDT using thermography during the treatment of basal cell carcinoma.

  2020cites this paper
• Infrared Imaging for Human Thermography and Breast Tumor Classification using Thermal Images

  2020cites this paper
• Thermogram Breast Cancer Detection: A Comparative Study of Two Machine Learning Techniques

  2020cites this paper
• An inverse heat transfer approach for patient-specific breast cancer detection and tumor localization using surface thermal images in the prone position

  2020cites this paper