Jul 16, 2008 4:46 pm US/Mountain
Dr. Dave Doesn't Buy New Self Breast Exam Study
DENVER (CBS4) ―
A large new study says breast self exams are not only a waste of time, but may actually do more harm than good.
Breast self exam (BSE) has been controversial for years. Few people know that organizations such as the American Cancer Society say the exam is optional.
Now there is a group saying it shouldn't even be done because they say BSE does not lower the death rate from breast cancer. They say it also increases the rate of breast biopsies because women wind up finding lots of benign lumps and bumps that need investigation.
The study of almost 400,000 women finds no difference in death rates of women who found their tumors through self exam and those who did not. That means finding a lump early through self exam really made no difference. It also says women who did regular self exams had twice as many biopsies as those who never or rarely did self exam. Researchers concluded regular self exams do more harm than good.
"This advice throws a real chink in the decades-old armor of advice we've given women -- do a self exam, get an annual exam from your doctor, and get mammograms and you'll be doing all you can to protect yourself," CBS4 Medical Editor Dr. Dave Hnida said. "Now this study says forget the first two and just stick to mammograms."
Hnida said there are three things women should know especially when they are hearing advice based on statistics and not people. They are as follows:
• The study was done in Russia and China where they don't have the technology the U.S. has to evaluate a breast lump, or for treating breast cancer.
• The study does not look at age. They don't mention younger women who are not getting mammograms.
• Fifty percent of all breast cancers in America are found by women, sometimes within months of a normal mammogram.
"My advice (is to) continue regular self exam," Hnida said. "It's the study that does more harm than good."
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