Researchers have found a non-invasive, cost effective method that uses infrared technology to locate hard-to-find breast cancer tumors. For the 40-50 % of women with dense breast tissue, where these tumors often hide, this technology could be the difference between early interventions or major surgery.

Faculty and student researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology, and physicians from the Rochester Regional Health System (RRHS), developed a non-invasive process using infrared imaging to better detect cancerous tumors. The team improved an imaging option that is both comfortable and reliable.

“Mammography, although it is good, may not be a complete solution,” said Satish Kandlikar, professor of mechanical engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, who has been involved in advancing thermal imaging technology since the 1990s.

The multidisciplinary team consists of Kandlikar and doctoral students in his Thermal Analysis and Microfluidics Lab, as well as Rochester Regional Health physicians Donnette Dabydeen, a radiologist in the Department of Diagnostic Imaging; Lori Medeiros, breast surgeon, and executive director of the Rochester Regional Breast Center; and Pradyumna Phatak, medical director of the Lipson Cancer Institute and chief of medicine.

“The project is a unique collaboration between a laboratory team at RIT, with years of experience in the heat transfer arena, and clinicians at Rochester Regional who diagnose and treat breast cancer,” said Phatak. “Early detection is one of our most effective strategies in the war against breast cancer.”

Current patients in the Rochester Regional Health Breast Center volunteer to be tested after an initial mammography that shows suspicious findings on x-ray films. When referred for a follow-up MRI, these patients can also volunteer to be screened using the infrared system.

“Thermography is definitely not a new technology, it has been around for a long time,” said Alyssa Recinella, an engineering doctoral student and a member of Kandlikar’s research team. “The reason people are so interested in it is because it does not induce radiation like mammography does, there is no contrast material, like you have with an MRI. It is more comfortable. Patients will not need to be contorted into different positions or smash anything. It is completely non-invasive.”

The system consists of an infrared camera, on a track, mounted underneath a cushioned table. It is angled and can be adjusted as the clinician moves it to take images. Recinella works closely with the team of breast cancer experts at the RRHS center—from oncologists and radiologists to researchers and sociologists—on testing and in helping interpret medical information.

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