assessment of computer regulation thermography (crt) as a complemetrary diagnostic tool for breast cancer patient

background: breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women demanding time and accurate diagnosis to take remedial measures to treat. objective: comparing the diagnostic capability of the computer regulation thermography (crt), as a novel and safe dignostic procedure, with common clinical examination and imaging methods including sonography and mammography for diagnosing breast cancer in suspecious patients against pathology results as the gold standard. methods: out of 97 patients referred to a cancer research center, 44 meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. the selected patients were then subjected to mammography, sonography, crt and clinical examinations. then, the patients showing suspecious symptoms of breast cancer underwent pathological examinations. results: crt indicated a higher specificity compared to mammography and sonography (78.9% vs. 71.4% and 47.0%, respectively). however, the sensitivity of crt was lower than those of the mammography, sonography and clinical examination (52% vs. 70.6%, 82.4% and 84.0%, respectively). furtheremore, the accuracy of crt was lower than mammography, sonography and clinical examination (63.6% vs. 70.9%, 64.7% and 88.6%, respectively). while the positive prediction value (ppv) of crt was higher than those of mammography and sonography, it was lower than that of the clinical examination (76.5% vs. 75%, 60.9% and 95.5%, respectively). the negative prediction value (npv) of crt was less than all other modalities (55.5% vs. 66.7%, 72.7% and 81.8% for the clinical examination, mammography and sonography, respectively). conclusion: although crt with a lower sensitivity and higher specificity, cannot be recommended to be used as a definitive diagnostic tool for breast cancer patients, it can be used as a complementary method with other methods to increase the diagnostic accuracy of suspicious breast cancer patients.