[Usefulness of contact thermography for the evaluation of chemotherapeutic effectiveness in breast cancer].
We examined temperature differences between a cancerous breast and its counterpart normal one by contact thermography before and after preoperative chemotherapy, and evaluated the relationship between the changes in the thermograms and response to chemotherapy in six patients with breast cancer. We used the following definitions: 1) delta Tmean: temperature differences between a mean temperature of a cancerous breast and that of the contralateral healthy breast; 2) delta Tmax: temperature differences between a cancer-related hyperthermic area in a breast and the mirror area of contralateral breast; 3) and the thermal patterns in thermogram were estimated by the criteria of Tada et al. In responders the thermograms after chemotherapy indicated an improvement in the hyperthermic vascular pattern (HVP) or hyperthermic area and a decrease of delta Tmean and delta Tmax. In contrast, little or no changes were observed in the thermograms of non-responders. Degrees of changes in thermograms reflected the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Our study showed that chemotherapeutic effectiveness may be better evaluated by combining contact thermography with the present method measuring tumor sizes than by only the present one.
Kurihara
T
T
Breast Surgery Clinic, Saitama Cancer Center.
Higashi
Y
Y
Suemasu
K
K
Kanoh
T
T
Tabei
T
T
Inoue
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000601:surgery; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D005467:Floxuridine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D008727:Methotrexate / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008875:Middle Aged; D016685:Mitomycin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013817:Thermography / Q000379:methods*; D014751:Vindesine / Q000008:administration & dosage
D005467:Floxuridine; D016685:Mitomycin; D004317:Doxorubicin; D003520:Cyclophosphamide; D014751:Vindesine; C025034:doxifluridine; D008727:Methotrexate