Although it is not widely used, studies show digital infrared thermal imaging, or thermography, is more effective than mammography--the current gold standard for breast cancer screening. Thermography detects early changes in the breast that increase a woman's risk for developing breast cancer.

How Tumors Grow

To understand how thermography works, you need to understand the biology of tumors. Cells in our body divide to form new cells. Sometimes a cell changes, or mutates. In most cases, our body repairs the mutation before the cell divides. In some cases, however, the mutation is passed on through cell division, increasing the chance the mutated cells might organize and form a tumor.