Outreach

The INAOE will create an image repository to correlate mammograms with thermographs

• Thermography, a technique that allows detecting temperature changes in the human body, can be, along with mammography, another valuable tool for the early and non-invasive detection of breast cancer.
• The INAOE has a framework agreement with ISSSTEP, with which contact was sought for a specific thermal map project. The ISSSTEP is expected to validate the technique.
• This tool will allow us to reach a large number of women.

Santa María Tonantzintla, Puebla, October 30, 2023.- Thermography, a technique that allows detecting temperature changes in the human body, can be, along with mammography, one of the valuable tools for the early and non-invasive detection of breast cancer.
Creating an image repository to correlate mammograms with thermographs is the objective of a project being developed at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE), a research center of the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt).
For Dr. Francisco Renero Carrillo, director of Academic Training at INAOE and leader of this project, this topic is relevant not only during October, the month of the fight against breast cancer, but throughout the year. If validated by hospitals, thermography would allow it to reach a greater number of women.

Dr. Renero's involvement in the subject is due to his experience in the use of the thermal camera in patients with diabetes and its complications in the lower limbs: “I have carried out studies of thermal maps of women in a private laboratory and later in the municipality from San Andrés Cholula, where they gave me the opportunity to quantify some women,” she indicates.
The researcher from the INAOE Optical Coordination also reports that his work is based on the standards and protocols of the American Academy of Thermology, which include the bases of quantification when comparing the temperatures of the right breast with the left breast in patients. .
“The rule that all of us who work in thermography use is the following: if the difference between the right side and the left side is plus-minus one degree, there is no problem; If it is between one and close to two degrees, we can suspect something, and if the temperature difference is greater than two degrees there is a risk. These are the bases that I applied because I was interested in the use of the thermal camera for breast pathologies,” says Dr. Renero.
Likewise, he adds that the INAOE has a framework agreement with the Institute of Security and Social Services of Workers in the Services of the Powers of the State of Puebla (ISSSTEP), with which contact was sought for a specific thermal map project.
“In the meantime, something interesting happens: we found a group of women who had recently had a mammogram and had their BI-RADS (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data Systems) classification, and we contacted them to allow us to take their the thermal map. The difference between the mammogram and the thermal map is approximately ten days. Let us remember that mammography is a very invasive procedure. Those ten days gave us time to have a better interpretation of the thermal map, and the results are impressive, they are one by one. All of these women we contacted are over 40 years old, that is, they are candidates for a mammogram in Mexico. All those who had thermal differences below one degree have BI-RADS 2 classification, that is, there is no risk, the doctor suggests that they have a mammogram once a year. Unfortunately, two of them had BI-RADS 3 classification, thermally we saw them with temperature differences between the right and left breast above one degree but they did not reach two. And there was one with BI-RADS 4 classification and it was the only one where the temperature differences were greater than 2.4 degrees. There is very little work internationally on the correlation of heat maps and BI-RADS classification.”
Dr. Renero and Dr. Hayde Peregrina, researcher at the Computational Sciences Coordination, trained a group of female students to take the thermographs of this small group and also those taken at the ISSSTEP.
Dr. Francisco Renero points out that meetings have been held with the ISSSTEP and it is expected that images will be taken in the coming days: “We hope to take between five and eight thermal maps per day, in a week we will have about 25 and for the doctor's project Mario, we want to take at least 80 but the commitment to ISSSTEP is to continue taking thermographs for at least six months so that we have a large database.”

Dr. Renero considers that in the future thermography will allow correlation with specific types of cancer, and concludes: “I hope and wish immensely for the good of all women in the country that ISSSTEP is the hospital that validates the technique because with thermography we can reach many more women. Mammography is only indicated for women over 40 years of age, the peak of deaths from breast cancer is at 60 years of age, but before the age of 40 there are women who die from breast cancer. “These younger women are not candidates for mammography.”