Thermography and breast cancer

[countrygirl]

I paid for one of these scans about 18 months ago plus mammo and ultrasound and the mammo and u/s were both perfectly normal but the thermogram said abnormality in both breasts. The compay I went with is not a good one and I had terrible time waiting for resutls and being double charged etc. The nhs will not accept thermography results as they say lots of things can cause an abnormal result that are harmless and as thermography can detect activity up to 10 years before anyone actually would deveop breast cancer short of having a double mastectomly for what might be nothing there is nothing you can do.

I saw a breast surgeon privately and he expalined all the above to me and he recommended that I stick to nhs mammo every 3 years but that I have an ultrsaound privately every year and a breast exam as nearly all abnormalities show up on ultrasound and there is no radiation so this is what I am doing and I am due to have this done in a few weeks.

Today I came across a report in a very well respected medical publication that again says that thermograms can detect activity up to 10 years before cancer develops but again give no advice on what you can do about it! I am going to discuss it again with the breast surgeon when I see him in a few weeks.

Last time I saw him he said having yearly mammo's could in itself cause the cancer hence sticking to nhs programme and yearly unstrasounds.

I wish with all my heart I had not had that dratted thermogram, if I had known that if nothing shows up on mammo or ultrasound then nhs will do nothing anway I would not have had it done. The breast surgeon said that these scans cause unecessary worry because unless the other tests show up something then you are left wondering if the abnormalities are harmless or otherwise and I so agree with him!

Can you all understand why I am concerned?

[macc noodle]

Hey countrygirl

I can understand why you are concerned - you have opened Pandora's Box and cant get the damned things back in again!!

Look I know nothing of thermograms for breast cancer so cannot comment - all I do know is that ultrasound and mammograms are the diagnostics of choice within the NHS and have saved lives along the way.

The fact that you, having acknowledged this yourself, used a disreputable firm to have the thermogram and they said that they could see an abnormality could it just have been a ruse to ensure that you kept paying them a large amount of money for repeated tests??

The report you are referring to says it can detect activity up to 10 years before breast cancer develops - so are they saying that it is 100% likely that if you have any "abnormal activity" showing on the thermogram that you will develop breast cancer in 10 years???? Mmmm not sure about that being a given because otherwise the medical world would be jumping up and down about this miraculous discovery I think.

It seems to me that you are reading a report which is actually saying the same as the NHS say and that is that the thermogram can detect abnormalities which are not necessarily going to develop into breast cancer and therefore routine exams via tried and tested methodologies are the best way forward.

Is there a family history that makes you so obsessed with breast cancer?

Why not discuss it with your consultant?

Macc
xx

[countrygirl]

Thanks Macc. Yes I am gong to discuss this again with consultant - what I posted was what he told me a year ago. Basically that abnormal thermograms might indicate you could develop breast cancer up to 10 years hence but then again the abnormalities could be from something harmless which was why he did not use them.

My mother died of breast cancer so I know I am at more risk.

The report I read was saying that in 80% of people with abnormal thermograms breast cancer was detected in the following 10 years.

The private company is saying if you have abnormal one then you need to have repeat ones every 6 months to see if the abnormality gets better or worse BUT the big thing is that you could do this for 8 years before a cancer is detected by conventional means and what an 8 years that would be:wacko::wacko::wacko:.

I will let you all know what the consultant says after my next appt.

[sahara]

Its so easy for me to say, but I would go with what your consultnt says. I went for a an ultrasound because I found a lump and I think they are exceedingly accurate.

The fact that they are offering you yearly ultrasounds is brilliant and I think that coupled with your awareness is fantastic and hopefully should reassure you somewhat.

I understand why you are worried tho, my Mum died of lung cancer and her uncle had it and died too so I am paranoid I will get it to, but they won't do anything for me.

All the best xxx