Detection of Breast Cancer in Cases False-Positive by Thermography

Thermography is one of several modalities for detecting breast cancer. Thermography seems to be one of the best screening modalities available because of its low incidence of false negativity. On the other hand, there are many false-positive cases, some of which are diagnosed as breast cancer only by thermography. We examined 123 cases that were false positive by thermography at the first examination. In nine of them, breast cancer was diagnosed after one to ten months. Seven cases were diagnosed as mastopathy, and two cases as intraductal papilloma. All of these were diagnosed as benign disease by palpation and ultrasonography. Some reports have described that thermography is useful for detecting not only non-palpable breast cancer but also cancer in high-risk patients. Therefore, cases in which thermographic findings indicate malignancy should be observed carefully, even if the findings of other examinations indicate benign disease.