Is Breast Self-Examination Harmful? - Brief Article

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed type of cancer in Canada, but the Canadian Task Force on Preventative Health Care recently took a stand against teaching women ages 40 to 69 how to perform a breast self-examination (BSE).

Dr. Nancy Baxter, with the Canadian Task Force on Preventative Health Care, published evidence this month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that BSE is not helpful in detecting and preventing breast cancer among women. The task force gathered evidence published in studies from 1966 to the present and found that BSE did not show a benefit to women ages 40 to 69. Furthermore, Baxter and colleagues found that women who had conducted self-examinations had a higher rates of benign biopsies (a test in which a small sample of tissue is taken from the breast and examined for the disease).

It is therefore recommended that in addition to breast self-exams, women over 40 years old should also turn to mammography and professional breast examinations before relying on self-examination.

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