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(Ivanhoe Newswire) Women who do monthly breast self-exams may not be doing their health much good.
A new review of recent studies finds no proof self-exams reduce breast cancer deaths, and may instead do more harm than good. The report shows the exams led to almost twice as many biopsies that did not find cancer compared to women who did not do the breast screening.
At present, screening by breast self-examination or physical examination [by a trained health worker] cannot be recommended, conclude the authors of the review. But they understand some women will want to keep doing the breast self-exams and recommend those women get medical advice if they notice any change in their breasts that might be breast cancer.
Carolyn Runowicz, director of The Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center, notes 50 to 60 percent of women detect their own breast masses. She encourages women to do the self-exams if they are comfortable with them.
I think what we are seeing is that women are familiar with their breast through breast self-exam and when there is a lump, they notice the difference, Runowicz was quoted as saying.
The new review is part of The Cochrane Collaboration an international organization that evaluates medical research.
It included two large studies of 388,535 women in Russia and China. Those who did self-breast exams had 3,406 biopsies, compared with 1,856 biopsies in the group that did not do them. There was no significant difference in breast cancer deaths between the two groups.
The study in China also found the rates of both mastectomy and breast-conserving surgery such as lumpectomy were very similar between women who did the exams and those who did not.
SOURCE: The Cochrane Library, 2008
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