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SINGAPORE: Five years ago, thermal scanners were used to detect fever when the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) struck. Now, the technology is being used in breast cancer screening.
Called Thermal Imaging Medical System (Tims), it uses an infrared thermal imaging camera to detect cancerous tissues through temperature change.
The patient is asked to dip her hands in cold water to enable the heat to move down towards the hands before the camera captures the thermal images of the breasts.
The procedure lasts about 15 minutes and is currently on trial at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH).
It is non-invasive and different from a mammogram where the breast is compressed between two plates.
Said Professor David A Stringer, head of department, diagnostic imaging, KKH: "This technique is really an additive, an adjunct to mammography. Used in its best way, it will be done together with mammography."
Added Dr Teo Sze Yiun, consultant, diagnostic imaging, KKH: "Breast cancer, when it develops, forms new vessels, so when there are more vessels, there is more heat associated with these cancerous tissues.
"Tims can detect minute temperature changes in the breast tissues and it can localise the area of the breast which has this abnormal heat."
The system can also be used to detect cancerous tissues in patients with breast implants and dense breasts.
A study last year showed that cancer turns up five times more often in women with extremely dense breasts than in those with the most fatty tissue.
On mammograms, fat looks dark, but dense tissue is light, like tumours, so it can hide the cancers.
Said Dr Teo: "The infrared emission is actually better in dense breasts and this is contrary to what happens in a mammogram."
Tims is a collaboration between the hospital and local company Sirius Medical Innovation, which specialises in thermal imaging solutions.
If the trial, in its second phase currently, proves successful, the company plans to take the technology abroad. - TODAY/fa
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