Many women diagnosed by traditional screening methods, such as palpation, mammography, and MRI, do not discover their cancer until it is relatively advanced. This makes treatment more difficult and reduces the chance of a cure. To deal with this issue, we have developed a noninvasive embedded thermography system that allows for an early detection of breast cancer. Indeed, the surface temperature distribution of the breast, which we will call the thermal image, can be used as a preventive indicator of the subsequent development of a cancerous tumor. This is due to the metabolic activity of the immune system, which induces, in the presence of cancer cells, a local increase of temperature even before the tumor tissue is differentiated and detectable by conventional imaging systems. The proposed system is designed as a network of bioheat microsensors applied to the breast, to measure periodically the temperature gradients on the surface. All the bioheat microsensors are addressed by a microcontroller via the I2C protocol. To calibrate and evaluate the proposed system, we have proposed an experimental model of the breast, inside which we have placed Joule effect heating elements.
Every year, many women around the world die from breast cancer. So to fight this disease, it is important to have an efficient diagnostic technique to detect first-stage tumors. Thermography is an effective complementary technique that gives precise results on the state of the breasts. Our team is currently developing an embedded system of thermography capable of being worn by a woman to detect early-stage tumors. In this work, we will study the possibility of revealing the tumor's stage from the thermal gradient generated on the surface. Using COMSOL software, we have performed more simulations of breast tumors at different sizes and depths. To experimentally evaluate the simulations, and calibrate our next thermography system, a breast imaging phantom has been performed. The heating resistances mimic tumors was including in the organic materials mimicking living tissue of the breast. The results indicate that surface thermography has the potential to explore firststage tumors.
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