New Exeter Health Screening Company Detect Early Stages Of Breast Cancer

Local woman, Catherine Fraser has become the first client of new Exeter business Thermalogica to be diagnosed with breast cancer following abnormalities revealed on her Thermal Imaging scans.  Thermalogica launched earlier this year, and provides a ground-breaking health screening service to clients at various venues across the South West.  Exeter-based business partners Terri Bainbridge and Lisa Portman offer revolutionary Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI) which detects heat to measure the physiological activity in the body using a sophisticated camera to create a map or thermal fingerprint of the infrared patterns within the body. 

Catherine Fraser

Still relatively new to the UK, Thermal Imaging is widely established throughout America and some parts of Europe and is supported by 30 years of research and over 8000 published medical studies.  Thermal Imaging is used as an aid for diagnosis and prognosis for various health issues including strokes, heart disease and cancers.  The thermal scans also provide an insight for people who have incurred injuries and wish to monitor their rehabilitation.  This non-invasive procedure is painless and emits no radiation therefore it is safe for use on children.  Images are taken by Terri and Lisa; both fully trained clinical thermographers before being sent via a secured server to a professional group of physicians trained in the protocols of reading thermal images. A full medical report is then produced by the dedicated team of doctors who are registered Thermologists. The images are archived in a secure data base and future scans are compared to the earlier images to monitor any changes over a period of time.

Following a series of breast scans, which showed abnormal activity and upon the advice of Thermalogica, Catherine aged just 46, took her report and images to her Doctor and was referred for a mammogram and ultrasound – a biopsy confirmed she had breast cancer. She comments: “I have agreed to go public with my story in the hope that more women will contact Thermalogica for thermal image scans.”

Catherine’s story:  

“It seems strange to be writing as being a success story because of a diagnosis of breast cancer – but thanks to the early detection of changes happening in my breasts through thermal imaging, I have become Thermalogica’s first “win”. Thermalogica recently opened in Exeter, and offers thermography to detect physiological changes (shown up as heat activity) in the body and is run by Terri Bainbridge and Lisa Portman.

My connection with Terri goes back a couple of years, when, as a writer for a local newspaper, I did the first interview with her about her own struggle with breast cancer which was happening at the same time as she and her husband, Sam, received the devastating diagnosis that their four-year-old daughter, Billie, had an inoperable brain tumour.  Terri was a friend of a friend and while the family’s first instinct – understandably - was to not do an article and to try and raise the money to send her to America for pioneering treatment themselves, I knew that if we could get the story out there, people would take this family to their hearts.  And boy did they! After the first interview was published, the story was picked up by other local and then national media and the ‘Billie Butterfly Fund ‘ took wing and soon raised enough money for her treatment, even getting people like comedian Peter Kay involved.

There was, sadly, to be no happy ending for Billie, who died almost a year to the day after her diagnosis, but Terri, a self-confessed “research geek” continued to battle for more information on cancer, its early diagnosis and ways to combat it.  So when she sent a Facebook invitation to her friends offering us a special opening offer on a scan, I jumped at the chance. In my forties, I am still some distance from the age to be invited for mammograms by the NHS and as I had been going through some cyclical lumpiness and pain over the preceding couple of months – all part of the winding down process, I thought - I signed up.

The scan was taken at the relaxing and comfortable Radiance MediSpa located near Exeter Central.  The first scan came back showing some heightened thermal activity, which the doctors said could be normal fibrocystic changes, but recommended a repeat in three months. The notes which accompanied that repeat scan suggested I made a doctor’s appointment for clinical evaluation.

My GP could feel nothing out of the ordinary, but referred me to the breast clinic at the RD&E to be sure.

Government guidelines mean you get seen within two weeks, so I turned up expecting to be checked over and sent home: there is no history of breast cancer in the family, I had no hard, pea-sized lumps – surely it was just a routine appointment. 

A couple of hours’ later, when I was having a biopsy in the ultrasound department after a mammogram, it began to dawn on me that this wasn’t routine. I quizzed the radiologist on what he was looking at on the screen. He told me that it wasn’t easy to see exactly what it was, but he “wouldn’t fall off his chair” if the biopsy came back as cancer.

And, indeed, it did. In both breasts, which apparently is quite common in the type of cancer I have, lobular carcinoma. This type – and who knew there were so many different ones – accounts for around 10% of all breast cancers and doesn’t present as a hard lump, just more a feeling of thickening tissue, which is difficult to differentiate from normal ageing changes.

At the start of next month (note: Dec) I am going for a double mastectomy, with reconstruction surgery being done at the same time. The care I am receiving from the RD&E is fantastic: the immediate mastectomy choice was mine – I didn’t fancy six months of chemo beforehand as I don’t want to have to live with my cancer for that time, nor lose my hair in the winter - but I have felt nothing but fully informed and supported in my choices all the way.

I am also in the fortunate position of having an extremely supportive employer in Exeter City FC – I work for the Football in the Community department – and the club have become extremely interested in the work of Thermalogica and the application of thermal imaging in the area of sports injuries.

There is a strange sort of symmetry in my original interview with Terri and the position I find myself in today. Although the Billie Butterfly campaign didn’t have the happy ending we all so desperately wanted, that connection I made with Terri which led me to Thermalogica has made my story a positive one. Not to put too fine a point on it, it has saved my life - which is a success story in anyone’s book.

Thanks to the early detection of my breast cancer, my prognosis is extremely good, but had I waited a few years until I was called for a mammogram, things could have been very different indeed.

I’m not much of a one for hidden meanings and symbolism, but the day I got home from the hospital after making my decision to have the surgery and was brushing my hair at the dressing table, a butterfly landed on the bedroom window sill.”

www.thermalogica.com 

Terri's Story...

A test that identifies seven classes of breast cancer could be available within two years, say UK scientists.

Writing in the British Journal of Cancer, the Nottingham researchers say it could help doctors tailor treatment better and boost survival rates.

Terri Bainbridge:

So it’s breast cancer awareness month again, but is all this ‘awareness’ actually teaching us anything?  Breast cancer hit my radar back in 2005 when Kylie Minogue was diagnosed and I thought ‘Wow, if she can get it anyone can, even me.’  After feeling my breasts and thinking they felt a bit lumpy, I made an appointment with the doctor to check if this was normal.  She gave me a thorough examination and said everything was fine.  Call me a hypochondriac but I wanted a bit more proof than that so the doctor indulged me and an ultrasound was scheduled.  This showed I had a couple of cysts in my left breast but again I was told this was perfectly fine and sent on my way. 

However, 6 years later I found a small lump in my left breast and went back to the doctor who again said that doesn’t feel like anything to worry about but come back in a month if it’s still there.  Christmas came and went with a nagging worry in the back of my mind but I tried not to think about it.  The lump didn’t go away so back I went to the doctor who then sent me to the RD&E where the breast cancer specialist also said the lump didn’t feel suspicious but he’d send me for a mammogram just to be sure.  I was also given a needle biopsy to test the tissue.

I honestly thought I was wasting everyone’s time so when a letter arrived asking me to return to the RD&E to get my results I called up and asked just to be told over the phone.  After an awkward silence and then being told I had to come in, I still didn’t twig, so I did the weekly shop and went to the appointment on my own.

Being told you have cancer is one of the most terrifying experiences of your life.  You immediately think you’re going to die.  I had two beautiful children who might grow up without a mother.  When I told my husband, Sam, we both clung to each other and cried. 

I was given the choice to have just the lump removed or my whole breast.  After breast feeding 2 kids my boobs weren’t up to much so I decided to have my whole breast removed just to get rid of it and asked for the operation as soon as possible.  What I was later told shocked me.  After the surgery they examined the removed breast and found that the lump I’d found was sat on top of a very large tumour the size of a Satsuma, which had probably started growing 10-15 years previously – in my 20s!.  “What?!  But I had a mammogram.  Why didn’t you see it?”  I didn’t even want to think about what if I’d only chosen to have the small lump removed.

It turns out I have dense breast tissue.  This shows up as white on a mammogram as do tumours.  Check out some of the images on www.areyoudense.org and you’ll see it’s no wonder tumours get missed.  I’m not a freak, over 60% of women under the age of 50 have dense breast tissue – one of the reasons mammograms aren’t routinely offered to younger women – they’re only 54% effective in this age group.  But 30% of older women have dense breasts too, you don’t just stop having them at age 50 and mammograms are only 78% effective in over 50s.  Do you know what your breast density is?  Probably not.  But it’s right there on your mammogram and your doctor knows.  Why aren’t we being told?  If you have dense breast tissue you should be told and offered additional screening such as an ultrasound.  However, by the time a tumour is big enough to be seen on these scans it’s been growing for over 8 years.

But I’d had an ultrasound back in 2005.  What could I have done differently?  More research led me to thermal imaging, which is a test of function or physiology rather than anatomy.  Thermal imaging can show the activity relating to a growing tumour 8-10 years before it is big enough to be detected by a mammogram.  If I’d had a thermogram back in 2005 when the ultrasound found the cysts we’d have probably seen activity relating to a growing tumour rather than a harmless cyst.  Research has proved that a test of function AND a test of anatomy will detect at least 95% of early stage breast disease.  I couldn’t believe thermal imaging wasn’t more widely available as it’s used a lot in America.  There are a couple of clinics in Harley St but only about 20 in the whole of the UK so I retrained and set up my own here in Exeter.

Until I was told my daughter, Billie, had a brain tumour and was probably going to die, being told I had breast cancer was the worst day of my life.  After I was told that though, 4 months after I was originally diagnosed, breast cancer became a walk in the park!  I know so much more about breast cancer now, it’s not scary.  Knowledge is power.

I was actually called in for a mammogram and ultrasound a few months ago for my remaining breast and I must admit I thought well what’s the point of the mammogram?  I was curious to see what was said though so I went along with it.  After the mammogram the doctor came in to do the ultrasound and told me that everything was fine with the mammogram. ‘But did it show I’ve got dense breast tissue?’ I asked.  ‘Yes, it did.’  ‘So you can’t actually tell me for sure if everything’s fine then can you?’  The doctor looked a bit sheepish and said ‘No, we can’t, that’s why we’re doing the ultrasound as well but to be honest, as you have private health insurance you probably have a good case for asking for an MRI’.

I bet you don’t get told that on the NHS but at least he acknowledged I had dense breast tissue when I asked.  When a friend recently went for a mammogram on the NHS and asked the same question she was told ‘We’re not allowed to give you that information’.  Shocking.  Why?  Because any woman in her right mind would then insist on additional testing, costing the NHS more.  There is also evidence that you have a greater risk of breast cancer if you have dense breast tissue.  The most vulnerable are at most risk using an ineffective screening method and they don’t even know it.

There are women in America – they start annual mammograms at age 40 – who have been diagnosed with late stage breast cancer after having years of ‘clear’ mammograms.  These women have successfully campaigned for a law to be passed, that when a woman has a mammogram she must be told her breast density.  We must demand the same in the UK.  This will surely save lives.

Thermal imaging now available in Exeter at Radiance MediSpa 

www.thermalogica.co.uk