Breast thermography. A prognostic indicator for breast cancer survival.

A prognostic classification for thermographic staging of breast cancer has been applied to a cohort of 70 patients from 5040 screenees enrolled in the Albert Einstein Medical Center (AEMC) Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project (BCDDP). A diagnosis of breast cancer was established in each case before December 31, 1980. None of the patients have been lost to follow-up which extended from a minimum of 6 to a maximum of 13 years.

Other imaging techniques.

Images of the breast can now be produced by five modalities: x-ray, heat, sound, light, and magnetism. X-ray mammography is generally accepted as the most accurate of these in the detection of breast cancer, and the standard by which the others are judged. Despite the obvious attraction of nonionizing techniques, the economic factor attendant on multiple studies requires consideration.