ARE YOU HOT?

ARE YOU HOT?

Your Body Heat Tells Something about Breast Cancer

By ANA KRISTINE B. VALENZUELA

THE NUMBER of breast cancer incidence in the Philippines has rapidly increased. The country reportedly has the highest number of incidence rate in Asia and ninth in the world.

In observation of Cancer Awareness Month, women should be more conscious of this deadly disease by detecting it with new technologies being offered, such as the Medical Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging (MDITI).

“The main important issue in the MDITI is it can detect much earlier, it can detect the disease while it’s not yet a cancer, and it can detect it without pain,” says Dr. Roderick Tan, head of Health Quest Research which has MDITI. “It’s the client’s body heat that MDITI emits and that is the only thing that we get.”

Understanding How Breast Cancer Grows

Neo-angiogenesis. “Breast cancer grows like nerves or blood vessels,” says Dr. Tan. Women with malignant breast tumors showed abnormal and high-energy blood vessels near the tumors. These abnormal blood vessels formalized the theory of neo-angiogenesis.

Growing to provide nutrients to cancer. Neo-angiogenesis came from the word neo which means new, angio which means blood vessels, and genesis which is growth. “It is the new growth of blood vessels. It means that these blood vessels are growing, providing nutrients to the cancer cells,” he says.

Increasing the body heat. “From these blood vessels, blood is flowing through cancer cells. Blood in our body is hot,” he says. These blood vessels that give nutrients and extra blood flow increase the heat level of the affected area.

Progression. Dr. Tan pointed out that breast cancer may start while you are still young, and the cancer cells progress more rapidly.

Avoiding Breast cancer

Detection. “What we are offering here is a screening method for early detection of the cancer cells. Whatever the result of the test, the client then has the prerogative on how to proceed,” says Dr. Tan.

Body heat. “What MDITI does is it detects the body heat of the client. The camera is so sensitive that it can pick up the blood vessel’s growth in the breast,” he says. The interpreter will look for patterns suggesting blood vessel growth, which will indicate that the client is already at certain risk of breast cancer. "We will then recommend to the client to go for further evsluation immediately."

Breast print. Dr. Tan, however, adds that every woman has her own thermal imaging hand or breast print, her own breast impression. “Not because there is heat, it does not mean than the client already has cancer. There could be other problems,” he says.

Comparison to mammography. MDITI can detect cancer cells before mammography does. Dr.Tan shares that he had a client whose cancer was detected earlier on by MDITI, but only later by mammography when the cancer cell was already about one millimeter. “Mammo only detected it after 12 months, but the MDITI was able to detect it one year before. This is a case where the cancer is considered as fast-growing. There are some cancers that are slow-growing, “ he says.

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