Comparison of PET–CT and thermography with breast biopsy in evaluation of breast cancer: A case study

Abstract

Background and aimThe higher skin surface temperature in a malignancy breast region is due to an increase in blood flow, metabolic activity, and angiogenesis in the lesion site. The aim of this human breast thermogram analysis case study was to compare whole body PET–CT and thermogram in diagnosing breast cancer with breast biopsy as standard. Materials and methodsThe present study attempted: (i) To segment the abnormal mass region of the breast from thermogram, and PET–CT. (ii) To extract statistical features of the bilateral breast from thermogram and comparing the same with normal subject; (iii) To evaluate asymmetrical surface temperature of the malignant breast using histogram approaches. ResultsThe calculated difference in measured SST between malignant right- breast and normal- left breast was greater than 0.4°C whereas the same was found to be lesser ranged from 0 to 0.2°C in normal breast thermogram. The malignant right-breast RGB histogram, and gray histogram showed an asymmetrical pattern. K-Color means segmentation algorithm result was clearly showing the location of the breast mass hot region in an asymmetrical SST profiles with different SST regions. ConclusionAsymmetrical pattern in histogram and temperature profile in thermogram may be one of the approaches for quantifying the breast cancer.