Thermography: A new technology to Ireland has been greeted with caution by a breast care consultant surgeon in Tallaght hospital.
Mr James Geraghty, who leads the breast care unit in the hospital, said the technology which uses infrared imaging to identify possible tumours "may have its uses in the future as a non-invasive means of detecting cancer".
However, medical thermography is "still largely in the area of research" and is not standard practice in teaching hospitals in Ireland.
The technology has been introduced by the Irish Centre for Integrated Medicine in Kildare, run by acupuncturist Felipe Reitz and homoeopath Jean Fitzgerald. They say studies suggest that thermography can detect early cancer cells 10 years before any other examination.
"When a cancer is forming, it develops its own blood supply in order to feed its accelerated growth, a process known as malignant angiogenesis. And cells can start this process well in advance of when they turn malignant," said Mr Reitz. "When they do, the increased blood supply causes abnormal heat activity in the breast, which a specialised infrared camera can pick up."
For this reason it is a useful non-invasive, preventative tool, for women in their 20s and 30s, he said. "In the absence of any other positive tests, an abnormal breast thermogram indicates a 22 times greater risk for future breast cancer. This gives a woman time to act."
However, medical thermography is not a substitute for mammography, the standard breast tumour detection technology used in Ireland, said Mr Reitz.
"I'm not saying the thermography machine is the only thing. It's a compliment to help people be preventative. I agree with mammograms but we still lack preventative methods. The two technologies should work together."
Breast thermography has a false positive of 10 per cent (10 out of 100 women who are shown to have no problem will actually have a breast abnormality) whereas mammography has a 15 per cent false positive rate, said Mr Reitz.
Mr Geraghty urges patients with symptoms such as lumps, nipple discharge or changes in skin colour to see a specialist clinic. At the Irish Centre for Integrated Medicine, patients whose breast thermographs show any sign of heat spots are referred to their GP or specialist consultants.