Digital Infra-Red Thermal Imaging (DITI) in Symptomatic Breast Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the potential of thermal imaging (DITI) as a diagnostic tool in routine NHS symptomatic breast cancer care.
IRAS ID
281819
Contact name
Chris Wright
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
RD&E NHS FT
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 0 days
Research summary
Thermal imaging (DITI) has been shown to be able detect breast cancer but reliable evidence of its use is not yet available. As a painless, non-invasive technology it is an attractive alternative to mammography which uses x-rays (so limited age range and not suitable for regular check-up) and requires compression of the breasts which can be painful, particularly after prior surgery. However, nothing is currently known about the effectiveness of modern DITI in patients with symptoms of breast cancer being cared for by the NHS. Before DITI could be considered suitable for diagnosing breast cancer it would need to be fully tested. This would involve a big clinical trial with lots of people to determine its effectiveness. Before we can do this we need to see if such a study could actually be done (i.e. is it feasible?). To do this we want to obtain a thermal image from patients having a mammogram as part of their NHS Breast care at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust. We want to: see how many people would be willing to join the study and let us take the extra thermal image (could we recruit?), compare the results from the thermal image (heat picture) with the results from the routine test (get evidence that the proposed new technique is consistent with what we have now) and find out how patients and staff feel about the procedure (would it be acceptable to them?). This will involve an extra 5 minutes during the participants routine appointment and their involvement will end there.
The results from this study will show how feasible a larger study would be, and if so the information from this study will help to develop it.REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0290
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion