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Q Since I was a teenager, I have been examining my breasts routinely in an effort to avoid the effects of breast cancer. I'm 32 and continue self-exams because the disease is a part of my family history. After years of doctors recommending self-examination, now I hear stories that the procedure is not as effective as was once believed. Will you please help me to understand all of the controversy surrounding breast self-examinations? T.E., Charleston, S.C.

A For years, doctors and other medical experts have strongly suggested that women routinely conduct breast self-exams as an important defense against breast cancer. The controversy that you speak about developed recently as the result of a study which, some say, indicates that teaching women the techniques to examine their own breasts don't lessen the number of deaths from breast cancer.

The results of the study of nearly 270,000 Chinese factory workers came after at least 10 years of research. Half of the women were taught breast self-examination, a systematic search for tiny lumps, and half of the women weren't. At the end of the study, researchers found no difference in breast cancer deaths between the two groups of women.

Despite those results, the majority of the medical community still suggests that women continue to check their own breasts, especially if they have a family history of the disease and if the exams ease their anxiety. The American Cancer Society, which recommends annual mammograms beginning at age 40, endorses monthly breast self-exams beginning at age 20. On average, doctors say a woman has a 1 in 9 chance of developing breast cancer during her lifetime.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:35 AM