Breast Self-Examination

Few methods of breast-cancer detection can match in appeal that of breast self-examination. It is simple, self-generated, inexpensive, noninvasive and nonradiative. If used properly, learned well and practiced faithfully, it should uncover tumors that are still in an early stage and, thus, save lives. The concept of an ordered sequence of learned maneuvers by which a woman examines her breasts by palpation and inspection is not new. But it remains a difficult task to prove its efficacy. Intuition is difficult to match with numbers. No matter how great its appeal, we must insist on some sort of evidence, before we . . .