Breast self-exams are questioned

October is breast cancer awareness month and their are reminders everywhere to do self-exams. Even though this is the case, studies continuously disclose that breast self-exams are not likely to diminish breast cancer deaths and in some cases, do more harm than good to healthy women.

This disassociation between what’s advised and research came up again in August when an international group that evaluates medical science, named the Cochrane Collaborative, were in accordance with two earlier studies that showed no proof that screening lessens deaths. The organization says that breast exams “cannot be recommended” and warns that research “suggests harm in terms of increased numbers of benign lesions identified and increased number of biopsies performed.” A similar conclusion was indicated when two earlier studies were performed on Russian and Chinese women. This study revealed that a self-exam may be a waste of time, and many women are not diligent about doing it right and frequently enough to make a significant difference.

The American Cancer Society; the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force, an proficient panel that distributes the federal government’s official recommendation on preventive medicine; the National Breast Cancer Coalition; and the Journal for the National Cancer Institute are all currently disputing or examining the importance of self-exams.

This said, the same amount of doctors strongly assert that telling women to not do monthly self-exams is even more dangerous. One such advocate is the director of Kaiser Permanente’s breast surgical services in Sacramento, California, Dr. Balazs Bodai. He became distinguished when he created the breast-cancer awareness stamp. “Talk to any busy breast cancer surgeon, and they’ll tell you 30 percent of the diagnoses are made by the patient-not that they have cancer but they found their own lumps,” Bodai says. He said that he has seen patients with normal mammograms who later found a lump and it turned out to be cancer. Some patients have even caught it early enough by doing self-exams to avoid radiation and chemotherapy.

Then there is Dr. Marisa Weiss, a breast oncologist and founder of Breastcancer.org, who says that the Cochrane guidelines are very unwise and ill-advised.

Another one who stresses self-exams is Susan Stone, who is a chief of certified nurse midwives for Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento. She talks about the importance of helping women be the experts on their own bodies and health. Her recommendation is that women check their own breasts occasionally so they will know what feels normal and be able to recognize when there is a change. Then if a change is found, they can contact their caregiver for evaluation. Kaiser Bodai, who is very upset over the self-exam controversy, agrees with her.