THERMOGRAPHY IMPROVES VISUALIZATION OF MULTICENTRIC AND/OR DIFFUSE BREAST CANCERS

Multifocal and/or diffuse breast cancers are defined by the presence of two or more physically separate neoplasm in the same breast and represents difficulty for the decision in regard to the extent of breast issue resection and or type of operation. The problem is that new pathological studies proofed that the multifocal and/or diffuse breast cancers comprise the majority of breast cancers in every size and range. The same studies also shown that the frequency of unifocal and multifocal breast cancers is unaffected by tumor size and account for approximately 60% of the case. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of thermography to detect multicentric and/or diffuse breast carcinomas in preoperative setting. Material and Methods. The study was carried out on 15 female patients who underwent unilateral mastectomy because ultrasound fine needle aspiration proven breast cancer and suspicion on multifocal malignant lesion. Also, for all 15 patients thermography was done in preoperative setting. That finding was concordant with the findings of the standard methods such as ultrasound and fine needle aspiration. Histopathology found multifocal malignant lesions in all the patients. Thermography Images and Results. Total number of patients was N=15. The number of cancer foci found on pathology examination in these patients was 47. The number of foci in one breast ranges between 2 and 8. The thermography sensitivity for detecting pathological foci was 100%. In this manuscript we present the thermography images and thermal analysis of five different cases of multifocal carcinoma. Conclusion. Because the benefit of early detection depends upon complete surgical removal of the disease, the full extent of each breast cancer must be outlined by image in preoperative setting. It was found out that the thermography is noninvasive and highly sensitive method for detection multifocal and/or diffuses breast carcinomas.