October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the most common cause of cancer deaths among American women. It’s estimated that well over 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year alone and about 1 out of every 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer over the course of their lifetime.
As with all cancers, prevention is the best medicine. Even though most women are aware of breast imaging (eg. Mammogram) as a common means of investigating the status of breast health, there are actually a couple of tests that most are NOT aware of that can actually give insight into breast health long before abnormal changes can be noted through mammography. These 2 tests are: 1). Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (ie. Breast Thermography) and 2). Estronex test.
Breast Thermography is a non-invasive test that can alert your doctor to changes that can indicate early stage breast disease, often times earlier than what a mammogram, self-examination or doctor examination alone can provide. With the digital imaging study, subtle physiologic changes that accompany breast pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, infection or vascular disease, can be detected.
The second test to add to a woman’s arsenal for early detection of possible breast disease is called the Estronex test. It is a simple urine test that determines a woman’s risk for estrogen-sensitive cancers by measuring the good and bad estrogens. The best result is to have a ratio between the good and bad estrogen of 2:1 or higher, because people with a really low ratio have a much greater risk of estrogen-sensitive cancers. By measuring the estrogen metabolites, this test can identify biochemical changes in a woman’s body years before a cancer cell ever forms.
To increase your chances of detecting breast disease and/or cancer in its earliest stages, I strongly encourage all women to have both of these tests performed.
For further information on the thermography testing, contact Functional Imaging, LTD. at 614-472-2466. For those wanting to get the Estronex test performed, contact our office.