Axillary lymph nodes are the most important prognostic indicator for survival in breast cancer. Our mathematical model suggests the daily increased risk of axillary metastases due to treatment delay is 0.028% for tumors with moderate doubling times of 130 days and 0.057% for tumors with rapid doubling times of 65 days. This minimal maternal risk may be acceptable to some third-trimester pregnant women with early breast cancer, who prefer organ-sparing treatment with radiation after delivery to a mastectomy during pregnancy. This model further quantitates the increased risk of mortality borne by pregnant women whose breast cancer diagnosis is delayed.

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Radiometric sensing, ONCOSCANB, is a noninvasive test of thermal activity in the breasts which measures microwave emissions by passive microwave radiometry.Microwave radiometric sensing will be shown to be a promising technique which, when combined with mammography, could be useful in reducing non-cancerous breast biopsies based on mammographic false positives, thereby improving the positive predictive value (PPV) of mammography. PPV is defined as the number of malignancies per number of biopsies performed.At the time of this writing, more than 90 women scheduled for open breast biopsy based on abnormal mammographic findings underwent ONCOSCAN@ testing prior to biopsy. These abnormal mammographic findings were basically non-palpable. Various detection algorithms have been devised, following knowledge of biopsy outcome which separated the ONCOSCANs into those with low or high thermal activity.

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BACKGROUND: Therapeutic hypothermia (HT) has been shown to decrease death and severe disability in infants with hypoxicischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Rectal temperature (RT) is used to determine the temperature set-points for treatment with HT, however experimental studies have shown significant differences between RT and brain temperature during HT. Knowledge of actual brain temperature during HT might allow better determination of optimal degree of cooling and improve outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To compare measurements of brain temperature obtained by non-invasive radiometric thermometry (RadT) to direct tissue measurements in an experimental model of HT, and to use RadT in newborn infants with HIE undergoing HT. STUDY DESIGN: RadT measurements of brain temperature were compared to fiber optic (Luxtron) thermometry measurements placed at a depth of 1.5 centimeters into the brain of cooled miniswine. Following validation studies, brain RadT and RT measurements were continuously recorded in thirty infants with HIE during HT and rewarming. RESULTS: RadT and Luxtron probe temperatures were comparable in miniswine throughout a temperature range similar to therapeutic HT. RadT measurements of brain temperature were higher than RT in 60% of infants with HIE undergoing HT. Higher RadT measurements compared to RT were associated with cerebral white matter abnormalities (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS:RadT provides a safe, passive and non-invasive way to measure brain temperature that can be used in the clinical setting. RadT may be helpful in determining the optimal degree of cooling and identifying infants at highest risk of brain injury.