According to BreastCancer.org:

• About 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.

• In 2019, an estimated 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 62,930 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer.

• About 2,670 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2019. A man’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 1 in 883.

• Breast cancer incidence rates in the U.S. began decreasing in the year 2000, after increasing for the previous two decades. They dropped by 7% from 2002 to 2003 alone. One theory is that this decrease was partially due to the reduced use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) by women after the results of a large study called the Women’s Health Initiative were published in 2002. These results suggested a connection between HRT and increased breast cancer risk.

• About 41,760 women in the U.S. are expected to die in 2019 from breast cancer, though death rates have been decreasing since 1989. Women under 50 have experienced larger decreases. These decreases are thought to be the result of treatment advances, earlier detection through screening, and increased awareness.

• For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates are higher than those for any other cancer, besides lung cancer.

From the majority of women I’ve spoken to over the years, few things bring more fear than hearing that they have breast cancer. Some think of how deadly breast cancer has been for years and many others fear losing a vital part of their femininity.

This is why there is such a huge push for breast cancer screenings, which currently includes: self-exams, mammography, digital mammography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), position emission mammography (PEM), breast-specific gamma imaging (BSDI), thermography, breast exam by health care provider.

According to Our Bodies Our Selves:

Thermography records the temperature of different areas of the body by measuring infrared radiation. Malignant tissue generally has a higher temperature than normal tissue because of its richer blood supply and higher metabolic rate.

There is currently no evidence to support the use of thermography as a screening or diagnostic tool. The FDA states that thermography should not be used as a stand-alone tool for breast cancer screening.

Perhaps experts need to rethink the use of thermography after what happened to one woman, as reported:

A family visit to a museum turned out to be a life-changing and possibly life-saving event for one woman, all thanks to a thermal camera. When she visited Camera Obscura and World of Illusions in Edinburg, the thermal camera detected that she had breast cancer while it was still in an early stage.

The Thermal Camera was installed in Camera Obscura and World of Illusions in 2009 and it lets visitors see their body “hot spots.” Bal Gill, 41, visited the museum with her family in May this year. When she took a photo during the fun visit, she noticed something unusual: a red heat patch on her left breast.

In a letter she sent to the museum, Bal explained:

“While making our way through the floors we got to the thermal imaging camera room. As all families do, we entered and started to wave our arms and look at the images created. While doing this I noticed a heat patch (red in colour) coming from my left breast. We thought it was odd and having looked at everyone else they didn’t have the same. I took a picture and we carried on and enjoyed the rest of the museum.”

A few days later, after returning home, Bal was going through the photos and saw the image from the museum. She did a little bit of Google search and saw a lot of articles about breast cancer and thermal imaging cameras. I guess this time googling about possible disease turned out to be a good call. It prompted her to make an appointment with her doctor, and it turned out that she indeed had breast cancer. Thankfully, it was in really early stages.

With this documentation, perhaps it’s time for the medical community to spend more time and effort in researching the use of thermal cameras. They are much less painful and intrusive as a mammography or similar screenings. I know my wife would much prefer to a have a thermal photo instead of what she refers to as a mammo-screaming.