Date: October 29th
Time: 7:00pm EDT (4pm PDT)
The American Cancer Society's statistics on breast cancer are shocking. Every three minutes in the U.S. alone, another woman is diagnosed with this disease, which annually claims the lives of more and 40,000 women.
With the incidence of breast cancer on the rise and prevention now considered more valuable than cure, women are beginning to consider including a thermogram to their annual check-up. This little-known tool for risk assessment measures thermal emissions originating from the body, a key indicator of health.
Thermography utilizes an infrared camera to take images of the breast without radiation, compression, pain, or side effects. It is the only breast test that evaluates pathology physiologically, meaning that it measures the function of the breast and its blood vessels as opposed to all other available tests, which only measure the anatomy (tumors , cysts, etc.).
Thermography detects the physiologic changes in the breast tissue that have been shown to correlate with cancerous or precancerous states. Cancers, even in their earliest stages, cause the formation of new blood vessels called neoangiogenesis. This vascular process causes an increase in surface temperature in the affected regions, which can be viewed with infrared imaging cameras . Additionally the newly formed or activated blood vessels have a distinct appearance which thermography can detect.
It is well documented in medicine that changes in physiology can occur 7- 10 years before anatomic ones. This means that women (and men) have the opportunity to make changes in lifestyle, diet, nutrition, vitamin and mineral supplementation etc. that can forestall or even prevent the formation of tumors.
A thermogram has a 95% detection rate when used as a part of a multi-model approach using breast examination and anatomic testing. It is particularly valuable because it can be performed safely- at age a young age, thereby allowing for the detection of early stage breast changes at their inception.
Dr. Philip Getson is a board certified family physician in practice since 1976 in New Jersey. He is an internationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of reflex sympathetic dystrophy/complex regional pain syndrome and has lectured extensively on the subject. Dr. Getson is an assistant professor of medicine in neurology at Drexel University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Dr. Getson is a board certified thermologist and has reviewed more than 15,000 thermographic studies of the breast, thyroid and neuromuscular systems. He has been certified by four thermographic boards and has lectured internationally regarding thermographic testing, having authored several papers on the subject. He is Vice President of the American Academy of Thermology.