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Breast self-exams: Lifesaver or time waster?
WDI newsletter Summer 2009
RIDGEWOOD, New Jersey — Into the late 1980s, the most common doctor-recommended breast cancer screening method was the monthly breast self-examination (BSE). With the advent of more technologically advanced screening methods, is there still a role for BSE?
Recent studies show BSE has been eclipsed by more accurate screening technology. A 1998 study of nearly 390,000 women in China and Russia revealed that women taught to perform a monthly BSE were two-times as likely to undergo biopsies, compared to women who were not. Furthermore, despite their increased rate of diagnostic procedures, breast cancer survival rates among women who performed BSE, remained the same.
NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network), a network of twenty-one leading cancer centers, has since reclassified BSE as an optional, not standard, method of preventative care for women who already receive annual clinical exams and mammogram. The implication is that women who do not regularly perform BSE may do so without guilt or anxiety.
According to physicians, though few women perform BSE correctly, most discussions with patients about BSE center on not feeling guilty if they don’t do the exam, not on how to get it right. In 2001, doctors in Canada were told to stop advising women to perform BSE; in 2003, the American Cancer Society stopped recommending BSE. A 2003 analysis of the 1998 study in China and Russia, published in The Cochrane Library, reported that BSE might actually do more harm than good. The analysis pointed to the increased number of unnecessary biopsies, and levels of emotional stress associated with performing BSE on such a frequent basis.
The takeaway lesson of this observation is that women from age forty (thirty for woman at high risk of breast cancer), cannot rely on BSE. Interval screening with mammogram and ultrasound, or both modalities at the same visit are more effective.
Women’s Health Imaging Quarterly is published four times a year by Women’s Digital Imaging of Ridgewood, New Jersey, a private practice led by Dr. Lisa Weinstock, specializing in detecting and diagnosing conditions such as breast cancer, gynecologic diseases and osteoporosis. WDI offers a comfortable, private environment, the accuracy of the most advanced diagnostic instruments, and exceptional care from compassionate, highly qualified female doctors.
© Copyright 2008 Women’s Digital Imaging of Ridgewood, New Jersey, All Rights Reserved
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