Please recognise Thermography as an adjunct to Mammography!

Because of Mammography’s inability to distinguish between a benign or malignant tumour, one of the biggest risks of routine screening is over-diagnosis, followed by over-treatment. It is estimated that each year in the UK thousands of healthy women are exposed to and damaged by low energy ionising radiation, over-diagnosed and over-treated. These healthy women are treated as if they have true cancer and subjected to life-threatening treatments like a biopsy, lumpectomy, mastectomy – more often than not surgery is followed by chemotherapy or radiotherapy and then long term medication.

This situation could be greatly improved simply by recognising and including Thermography as an adjunct to Mammography – that is, a safe and simple test of physiology introduced into the routine breast screening program. A thermogram will reveal any physiological changes or imbalances in the body – either raising the alarm and justifying further testing or most importantly, revealing no abnormalities and therefore avoiding any unnecessary exposure to ionising radiation. This could prevent the mental and physical trauma thousands of unfortunate vulnerable women endure through over-diagnosis and over-treatment.