MARSEILLES CLASSIFICATION

Thermography can only claim to have an excellent error rate of 9% for both false positive and false negative if a strict procedure with the autonomic challenge is followed and noted in the report. This research, done at the Pasteur Institute in Marseilles France in 1976, used over 3,000 case studies. It developed 5 categories with their corresponding risk for confirming malignancy. Note here that no other screening tool be it Mammography, Ultra-sound or skill palpation can tell with 100% accuracy if a cell is malignant. Only a histology report from a biopsy has that accuracy. The following are the 5 categories of the Marseilles Classification.

o TH-1 Normal Thermogram
o TH-2 Benign Thermogram
o TH-3 Suspicious or atypical features (<10%)*
o TH-4 Thermogram with one criterion for
malignancy (65-85%)*
oTH-5 Thermogram with several criteria for
malignancy (96%)*
*Risk of confirming malignancy

STANDARD PROCEDURES FOR
THERMOGRAPHY SCREENING

1. In preparation for imaging it is important to instruct the patient to not be on their menstrual period. The week after is ideal but it is best not to be menstruating or a few days before if possible. This rule of thumb is excluded for menopausal women who have an outbreak of spotting. They should be instructed to not to apply deodorants or lotions or progesterone creams to the upper body. No caffeine should be consumed for 5 hours before acquiring images.
2. Patient is unclothed from the waste up , with arms behind neck for five minutes, in a room 68° F to 70° F.
3. Images of all views of the breasts are taken availing views of the frontal, left and right sides of the chest.
4. Patient hold their hands in cold water or ice for one minute (the autonomic challenge).
5. Post challenge images are acquired as before for comparison.

COMPARISON OF MAMMOGRAPHY TO THERMOGRAPHY

Mammography is looking for physical physical changes (a lump) and has a 40% false negative and 80% false positive rate. It detects micro-calcifications, has a 20% accuracy in diagnosing DCIS but 80% it is simply benign calcium deposits. In the case of DCIS only 2% are active cancer the rest may go their life without moving outside the duct.

Thermography is a physiological evaluation and sees changes in the breasts year earlier than a lump can be detected by mammography or skilled palpation. It has a 9% error rate for both false positive and false negative.

DR. JOHN GOFFMAN M.D. PHD
Head of Radiology Board at UC Berkeley

In his book: Preventing Breast Cancer

“Our estimate is that about three-quarters of the current annual incidence of breast cancer in the United States is being caused by earlier ionizing radiation, primarily from medical sources.”

Second edition 1996
C.N.R. Book Division
Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, Inc.
San Francisco, CA 94142 U.S.A.