Technology Making Thing Better

This is an article by Santa Fe doctor from a local newspaper - The Eldorado Sun.

Her article starts:

Today's statistics are alarming: one in eight women will develop breast cancer. Each of these women will then face the options of lumpectomy, mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy in choosing how best to respond to her situation. With no cure for breast cancer in sight, everyone agrees that early detection is crucial for a better outcome.

Presently breast self-exams and regular mammograms are the prescribed tools for early detection. Self-exams are an easy, no-cost way to monitor breast health and discover changes in their early stages. Mammograms provide a look inside the breast tissue and can often detect and diagnose anatomical abnormalities -- such as lumps -- already existing in the breast.

Lumps and other breast abnormalities, however, generally don't appear overnight. Long before they're discoverable by fingers or film their microscopic contributors are hard at work. Cancer cells require a supply of blood to flourish and survive. Clearly aggressive, they create their own pathways to obtain this nourishment. Neither self-exams nor mammograms can detect this invisible early cellular process, which can be happening in the breast for five to ten years before a lump is visible or palpable.

The science of breast thermography is opening the door to the earliest screening for abnormalities in breast tissue that Western medicine has ever known. Thermography uses infrared imaging to generate highly detailed digital pictures. The U.S. military began using infrared imaging in the 1950s. Valued for its ability to detect and pinpoint areas of heat and movement, this technique provided a way for the military to "see" what and where the eye or other surveillance techniques couldn't -- especially enemy forces in darkness -- whether on land, in the air or in water.

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