[Measurement of skin temperature in breast cancer--a new possibility of early diagnosis].

The local skin temperature was measured by infrared thermometry in 100 women suffering from malign neoplasms of the breast. After thermal stimulation the reaction of the skin temperature was determined in a repeated measurement. The results were compared with standard temperature values obtained in 100 healthy women. Statistical evaluation of the data using discriminant analysis resulted in a score, which allowed to classify 90% of the women with mamma carcinomas and 92% of the controls correctly. The possible application of this passive diagnostic method to the early detection of malign tumors in the breast is discussed.