Breast self-awareness: the evidence behind the euphemism.
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women. Breast self-examination originally was proposed and implemented under the assumption that it would increase early detection and, theoretically, improve survival. However, breast self-examination since has been proven to have no effect on mortality from breast cancer. Rather than being abandoned, breast self-examination has been repackaged into the new concept of breast self-awareness. Although the desire to empower women with self-detection of cancer is noble, teaching techniques that have been proven not to be effective likely causes more harm than good.
Department of Obstetrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Katrina
K
Mark
Sarah M
SM
Temkin
Mishka
M
Terplan
D001364:Awareness; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality; D016504:Breast Self-Examination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans