A mammogram (L) is an X-ray image of the breast that can identify tissue types with different densities, such as masses within the breast. Thermography (R) produces an infrared image that shows the patterns of heat on or near the surface of the body. Image source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Updated Findings on Thermography (2026)
It has been a few years since this blog was originally published, and after receiving several recent comments and questions, we decided it was time to revisit the topic. I’ll spoil the ending for you, though. Our conclusion is the same: thermography is neither better nor comparable screening to what a mammogram offers. In the United States, where mammography is relatively accessible, there is no medical reason to get thermography over a mammogram, and forgoing a mammogram in favor of thermography could cause harm. And if you’re concerned about radiation – a single screening mammogram poses the same risk as about 26 days of natural background radiation.
What Recent Research Shows
In a study published in 2026, out of 64 patients, there were 24 cases of breast cancer. Thermography missed cancer in six of those patients. Mammography missed one cancer. In this study, mammography had a diagnostic accuracy of 92.3%. Thermography’s diagnostic accuracy was 84%, with a sensitivity of 75%, meaning it accurately indicates cancer when cancer is present 75% of the time.
These results differ from those reported in the study mentioned in our original blog. In that 2008 study, the sensitivity was much higher and the specificity lower. This 2026 study mentions that the consensus has somewhat changed around thermography’s sensitivity and specificity, and mentions previous studies that line up with their findings as “confirming the high specificity of thermography despite its relatively lower sensitivity.” The authors also mention that things may change with the introduction and improvement of AI models to use with thermography. That’s one of the good things about technology: it can always improve.
Why Study Location Matters
One caveat to this update is that we were unable to find a recent study that took place in the United States. Why is the location of the study important? Because the healthcare landscape and population differ from those in recent studies of thermography, such as India, Iran, and Brazil. These countries have less robust healthcare infrastructure than the US, so cheaper, more mobile thermography technology makes more sense to deploy there because it’s easier to use in remote locations without technological infrastructure. In the US, screening mammography is relatively easy to access and, in most cases, free, so there is no compelling medical reason to use a less accurate technology.
Our Conclusion Remains the Same
Our bottom line remains unchanged: current thermography technology cannot compare to mammography. There needs to be more research and more advancement in the technology in order for it to be considered a viable alternative to mammography in the US. Mammograms are by no means perfect, and they can miss cancers in dense breast tissue, but thermography instead is not the answer. To learn more about thermography, mammography, and other screening methods and how they work, check out our 6 Types of Breast Screening Tests blog. If you are interested in thermography, have dense breasts, and can afford the cost (as thermography is not covered by insurance), it could be a supplemental screening tool for you. But please get your mammogram first, every year, starting at age 40.
Original Article (2023)
The content below reflects our original publication. Our updated findings are included above.
In discussions about mammography or breast screenings, you may have heard the word “thermography” suggested as an alternative to mammograms. But what is thermography? Is it a good alternative for those who find mammograms uncomfortable or painful or are concerned about radiation exposure? Short answer: while mammography isn’t perfect, it remains the best screening tool for breast cancer in the United States. We’ll dive into the science of thermography and mammograms so that you have the information you need to talk to your doctor about what breast screening options are right for you.
What is Thermography?
Thermography uses an infrared camera to detect areas in the breast that are generating a lot of heat. Think about those spy movies and tv shows where the hero uses special glasses and sees the rainbow-colored shapes of the bad guys on the other side of the wall. Here’s the theory behind why it works to detect cancer: growing a tumor takes a lot of energy, so the cancer cells will “trick” the body into sending more blood to the tumor site. That extra blood flow and cellular activity will show up red on an infrared camera, showing excess heat in that area of the breast.
How is Thermography Different from a Mammogram?
There are two big differences between these two screening modalities that seem to be of interest to patients. The thermography machine uses touchless technology, so there is no pressure or squeezing of the breast. And thermography uses infrared light to show heat, rather than the very small amount of radiation of a mammogram to show shapes and opacity of those shapes inside the breast tissue. Some lesser-known potential benefits are that dense breast tissue poses less of an obstacle for thermography compared to mammography, and it is a cheaper test.
Here’s the main difference that is concerning to doctors who deal with cancer: thermography cannot yet detect cancer that is at the local stage, only large tumors. Thermography also cannot assess potentially cancerous activity in nearby lymph nodes like mammograms can.
Peer-reviewed articles on thermography were reviewed for this blog, some sourced from a thermography imaging provider’s website. One article focused on the benefit of thermography in India, a country with fewer healthcare resources, where, yes, a thermography screening is better than no screening for breast cancer. In a study conducted in the United States, participants for the study were identified because they had already had a mammogram and were recommended to follow up with a biopsy. For this study, some important science terms are highlighted: sensitivity and specificity. Any medical test or tool is evaluated on its sensitivity and specificity scores. The sensitivity of a test measures how often the test finds a positive result when the patient is sick, or in this case, finds breast cancer when the patient actually has breast cancer. The specificity of a test measures how often a test finds a negative result when the patient is actually healthy or determines the patient doesn’t have breast cancer and they actually don’t.
In this study and others, thermography was found to be highly sensitive but had very poor specificity. For this study, that meant that thermography falsely indicated breast cancer in 56% of the patients who didn’t actually have breast cancer. That is worse than a coin toss. This means that patients who would receive thermography as an initial screening would have a much higher rate of false positives than those who receive screening mammograms. With the current thermography technology, this would actually mean more follow-up testing than we currently experience with mammograms, which is already considered too high of a false-positive rate.
Bottom line
While there is room to improve mammogram technology or come up with a better screening tool, current thermography technology is not it. Thermography is a great technology to continue to study and improve and to use in areas where mammography is inaccessible due to cost, but is not generally beneficial as a screening tool for the average woman in the US. Even in the peer-reviewed journal articles read for this blog that were positive of thermography, none suggested thermography as a replacement for mammography. In the United States, mammography is more widely available than thermography, is a more precise technology, and screening mammograms are covered at no cost by insurance companies if the patient is over 40.
12 Responses
Do you have a link to this study? Thank you!
Hi Alex – Here are the sources for the blog post:
https://www.mdanderson.org/cancerwise/mammograms-vs–thermography–what-you-need-to-know.h00-159385890.html#:~:text=A%20thermography%20machine%20uses%20an,appears%20yellow%2C%20green%20or%20blue
https://www.cureus.com/articles/113483-thermography-as-a-breast-cancer-screening-technique-a-review-article#!/
https://www.eleetephysicians.com/articles/Breast/Effectiveness%20of%20a%20noninvasive%20digital%20infrared%20thermal%20imaging%20system%20in%20the%20detection%20of%20breast%20cancer.pdf
Based on the explanation of sensitivity (correct positives) and specificity (correct negatives/false positives) Wouldn’t the minimally invasive, but highly sensitiv Thermography be a good option at least for those without high risk? Yes, more false positives, but then those could go to mamography for a secondary look. Thus minimizing the number of mamograms needed (and xray exposure to othrwise healthy breasts)? I’m 41 and just getting to the age where they’re starting to push me for mammograms. Seeking most minimally invasive way to keep an eye on my health!
Some people might make that choice, but it will also take more time, cost more money, and cannot detect small cancers. We are not aware of any insurance company that covers thermography, so one would be paying for that test out of pocket. And then if there is a positive result from the thermography, the mammogram to follow up would be coded as a diagnostic mammogram and that would have an out-of-pocket cost as well. And then we get to the part about missing the small cancers. Mammograms can pick up on calcifications, which can be precursors to a future breast cancer diagnosis or signs of heart disease (https://newsroom.heart.org/news/mammograms-may-provide-clues-about-womens-risk-for-cardiovascular-disease). Thermography can’t do this. This is an individual choice, but for most people, getting a screening mammogram is the most effective for health and cost-effective way of screening for breast cancer.
Mammograms are very painful and I know a number of women who just skip testing because of that.
Mammograms can be uncomfortable, and for some people, they are painful. For most people, the discomfort is brief, and imaging centers can often help make the exam more comfortable. It can help to talk with the imaging center ahead of time about options to reduce discomfort, such as whether taking a pain reliever beforehand is appropriate or if the technologist can adjust their technique. Mammograms are still the most reliable way to find breast cancer early, and early detection can save lives.
I had a thermograph on Harley Street in London in March this year. I had a TH2 score. Absolutely fine – not even recommended a consult. I presented with 3 lumps in my right breast and nipple indentation. I was 50. The report advised that I didn’t need to take any further measures. They advertise that their accuracy rates are better than a mammogram. In July this year, I went to hospital for a mammogram. Thankfully. 2 Grade 1 ER +ve tumours in right breast with a large pre-cancerous area (still within the duct – hadn’t yet spread to the breast tissue), in the middle. Because there were 3, a mastectomy was performed in October. I had one pre-cancerous lymph node out of six on biopsy of sentinel lymph nodes. Why didn’t the thermograph pick this up? I am concerned that other women may go and take the advice to do nothing further.
Hi Samantha, we’re sorry that happened to you. As we mentioned, thermography is not great at catching small tumors, only tumors that have progressed enough to draw a noticeable blood supply. Thermography also can’t assess lymph nodes the same way that mammograms can. We’re glad you followed up with a mammogram, which is what we recommend anytime someone gets a screening of any kind and is still dealing with symptoms.
Conversely, my sister had a mammogram and was told everything was fine. 9 months later, she found a walnut size lump in her breast that obviously had been missed by the radiologist. She returned to the hospital and asked to see her films and surprise, surprise, they said they were “missing“. We can guess what happened to them on hearing she had cancer.
I offer this story to point out that radiologists are not perfect, and neither are mammograms. In the end, you should do what makes you feel most comfortable. I personally don’t feel that radiating and squashing breast tissue is healthy and have stopped mammograms myself, but that is a personal decision, and one that each woman must make for herself.
Hi Dee, you’re right. Like we mention in the article, mammograms aren’t perfect and can miss things sometimes, especially for women with dense breasts, and sometimes there are fast-growing tumors that show up between mammograms. This is why we advocate for people to check their breasts between mammograms and if they are experiencing a symptom and their mammogram comes up “clean” to ask for additional imaging. Taking all that into account, mammograms are also the best tool we currently have to detect breast cancer early. They have helped us to catch more cancers when they are at their most treatable and women have more options for how they want to go about their treatment. We are all for women having more choices, our job is to make sure that women have the information they need to make an informed choice about how to go about their breast screening.
This study was in 2008, surely there have been studies on Thermographs since then
Thank you for your comment and for raising this important point. You’re absolutely right—additional research has been published since 2008. We’ve recently updated this article to include more current studies and findings on thermography. We appreciate you taking the time to engage with this topic and invite you to review the updated information.