Pioneering Breast Cancer Research: Takes the Vision of One Pajama Angels.org!
Re-posted with Permission from The Collective PC Magazine
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| Judith Szecsei-Beale and Darlene Szecsei-Albano, founders of Pajama Angels.org |
Who knew what they were getting themselves into when they started the journey to develop a breast cancer awareness group? All they knew is that they lost their precious sister to complications of the disease and saw their mother (who survived it) suffer through surgery and heart-wrenching therapies.
This inspired two dynamic sisters, Darlene Szecsei-Albano and Judith Szecsei-Beale, to set up an organization. The goal for Pajama Angels was simple enough—they wanted to raise money to help local organizations providing breast cancer services and people affected by breast cancer. However, like many things in life, the project evolved from simply raising funds into a passion to change the way breast cancer patients are diagnosed and treated. And they decided to become pioneers in trying to get breast thermography recognized as a diagnostic tool for early detection of breast cancer. This is no easy task.
What is breast thermography?
“Breast thermography uses infrared sensors that detect heat and increased vascularity as by-products of biochemical reactions. The heat that is created by these changes are complied and created into an image (www.breastthermography.com).” From what I gather, in layman’s terms this means that breast tissue changes when there is a tumour. A tumour will have more blood flow, causing there to be additional heat in the affected area. Notwithstanding, thermography cannot locate the suspicious tumour (www.breastthermography.com), and that is why it is recommended by the Federal Drug Administration in the United States to be used as an adjunctive diagnostic tool along with traditional mammography and ultrasound. Thermography is less painful than mammography.
So why is Pajama Angels involved? The Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) does not recognize it as a diagnostic tool. If a woman wants this type of exam, she would have to pay anywhere from $150 to $275, depending on where she lives in the province. Why is it not approved? Well, there appears to be insufficient scientific research to determine its effectiveness and efficiency. Furthermore, there is history. The opposition to it was summed up by David Gorski in an article he wrote for Science-Based Medicine:
“It’s approved to be used in conjunction with mammography. What thermography boosters also fail to tell you is that the reason why thermography fell out of favor 30 years ago was as a result of a study by Feig et al in 1977 that found thermograpy to come in dead last among existing screening modalities of the time in finding breast cancers. Mammography detected 78% of breast cancers. In contrast, thermography only detected 39%, and in all 16,000 women in the study thermography was interpreted as positive in 17.9%. This is not a stellar record. In a separate trial in the early 1970s, the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project (BCDDP) planned to compare thermography, mammography and clinical examination. However, BCDDP investigators decided to drop thermography early in the project due to a high false positive rate and low sensitivity.“
In addition, if you research the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), thermography is not mentioned on its website. Kelly Hanley, Communication Specialist for (CBCF), stated that they “do not recommend breast thermography,” largely due to the lack of scientific study on its efficiency and effectiveness.
However, there has been some positive Canadian research. According to an article in the Oncology News International (September 1997, Volume 6, Number 9) called Infrared Imaging as a Useful Adjunct to Mammography,
“A group of Canadian physicians hope to spark renewed interest in the use of infrared breast imaging as a complement to mammography.This technology lost favour some 20 years ago, but with new ultra-sensitive high-resolution digital infrared devices, efficacy is much improved, and the Canadian researchers believe that infrared exams could prove a simpler and less expensive complement to mammography than some of the other newer imaging methods.
Researchers from the Ville Marie Breast Center (Montreal) examined infrared imaging in 100 women with non invasive stage I and II breast cancer. In this study, the 84% sensitivity rate of mammography alone was increased to 95% when infrared imaging was added, John R. Keyserlingk, MD, a surgical oncologist at Ville Marie, said in his presentation of the findings at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.”
There have been other studies, but none has swayed the scientific community to pursue large-scale studies or government to approve it as an adjunct to mammography.
So what is the goal of the Pajama Angels this year? The goal is to raise $15,000, so 100 women can be scanned free with the hope, as Darlene tells me, “to get a doctor on board to run a longitudinal study of 100 women in their 20s (at no cost to the women) to begin to understand the results of thermography and breast health. Breast health starts at this age, not just in your 30s or 40s. I believe in a multi-modal approach, and this approach has the best results for women.”
Pajama Angels also supports lifestyle changes for women, including diet and environmental changes. Szecsei-Albano states, “Thermography is part of an early detection tool and not a cure…”
It is said that 95% of all women who are diagnosed early will survive their breast cancers. If thermography as a diagnostic tool augments the results for all women, then it needs the support of the scientific community to study it. Unfortunately it is going to take the efforts of those at Pajama Angels to get it studied for women in Ontario.
It is a cause worth supporting—so we did. The Collective PC Magazine is a proud sponsor of Yoga for Hope, which is happening this weekend in Windsor, Ontario.
If you are not in Windsor and wish to support this cause, visit www.pajamaangels.org to make a donation. And if this does not appeal to you, then support your own local group. As the Pajama Angel motto says ” United in a Cure.”
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