Study: Breast Self-Exams Don't Save Lives

A new study found breast self-examination does not detect tumors early enough to reduce the risk of death from breast cancer.

In fact, intensive teaching of the technique may raise health care costs without adding benefits by increasing the rate of benign breast biopsies, according to the study, published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The theory behind breast self-exams is that women could feel lumps when some still were small enough to be treated successfully.

But the 10-year study of more than 266,000 women in Shanghai, China, found that women who used the technique had no lower rate of breast cancer.

Dr. David Thomas, lead researcher from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said that teaching breast self-examination in developing countries, where mammograms aren't as available, does not seem like a good use of limited funds devoted to breast cancer prevention.

And even in developing nations, self-exams do not substitute for mammograms, the researchers said.

Although the study found the exams have no added benefit for most women, Thomas said women who are highly motivated to do thorough self-exams can do so. It's possible that these women may be taught to detect cancerous lumps between regular mammograms, he said.

In an accompanying editorial, researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine said that while teaching breast self-examination seems like a good idea, the technique is more expensive than it first appears, is difficult to learn to do well, and is difficult to do long-term.

The doctors said the new findings should lead to a change in clinical practice. Rather than spending time teaching self-exams, physicians should find ways to educate women about breast cancer symptoms and spend a little longer on the clinical breast exam, they wrote.

"Routinely teaching (breast self-examination) may be dead, but giving women information -- and continuing research on the effectiveness of excellent physical examination -- should live on," the doctors wrote.