Contribution for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer by a Superficial Thermography Solution

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most leading cause of mortality among women worldwide. It is, therefore, a real public health problem. For this reason, new early detection techniques have been developed and improved to increase the life expectancy of patients. This work involves performing simulations with COMSOL software to understand the thermal equilibrium established in the presence of a hot source representing a tumor, for studying the possibility of using surface thermal sensors for the early detection of breast cancer. To experimentally validate this study we have designed and implemented a breast imaging phantom by using organic materials to mimic living tissue and Ohmic resistors to mimic tumors. Thus, with an environment and structure with physical properties close to those of breast tissue, authors propose an excellent tool for evaluating surface thermography systems for early breast cancer detection and, as a result, improve the life expectancy of woman.