The experience of thermal imaging application in clinical oncology

Abstract

Both the tumors themselves and the toxic reactions on chemoradiotherapy (CRT) manifest in changes of thermal fields in the skin surface that gives a possibility of using non-invasive thermal imaging technique for diagnostics and monitoring. The purpose of the study is detection and preliminary analysis of dynamics of the anomalous thermal areas emerged at the skin surface of the oncology patients treated with CRT, and also establishing correlations of these thermal anomalies with the toxic reactions.Methods. Using thermal imaging method, 100 oncology patients with various tumors thus treated with CRT under different regimens were repeatedly examined.Results: A clear correlation has been found between dynamics of the anomalous thermal areas and development of the toxic reactions. Periodic general thermal examination of the patients during their treatment gave an additional thermal imaging method opportunity of revealing new malignancies, metastases and other deteriorations of health status.Conclusions. Preliminary analysis of thermal anomalies on patients’ skin surface has demonstrated that the thermal imaging method is principally applicable to monitor the severity of local CRT-caused toxic reactions.