Breast Self-Examination: An Effective Way To Detect Breast Cancer?

It is sad but still true - breast self-examinations are a waste of time. In fact, they are worse than a waste of time. Almost all breasts are lumpy. They are lumpy because they contain mammary glands. These lumps are what it's all about, ie, milk production. To most people (including most doctors), it is very difficult to distinguish between a lump of mammary gland and a lump of cancer. Yes, it is true that cancer is usually harder than normal glandular tissue, but if there is any fibrous tissue present, it is impossible to distinguish between cancer and, well, not cancer.

This creates all sorts of mischief. Women with lumpy breasts are kept in a constant state of anxiety, discovering new lumps, rushing to the doctor, waiting for the biopsy report, wondering 'How much time do I have left? Has it gone to my brain, my bones?' This tragic drama is repeated hundreds of times every week in communities all over the nation, at great cost and to no purpose. Millions of pounds are wasted annually because of women being advised to do an examination they are not qualified to do and, in fact, neither are most doctors.

The 'experts' keep arguing with the evidence against self-exams

In October, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published a study proving just how ineffectual breast self-examinations are. Researchers studied 266,000 women for 10 years. Half of them were carefully trained and instructed to perform periodic breast examinations and the other half did nothing. At the end of the 10 years, there was no difference between the breast cancer death rates of the two groups.

But Dr. David Thomas from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in the US, and lead researcher of the study, still had a kind word to say about self-examination: 'Women who examined their breasts found more benign lumps that required medical attention.' In spite of my respect for Dr. Thomas and his study, I don't agree with this conclusion. If a woman finds a lump only because she's looking for it, and it is not tender or disfiguring, why does it need 'medical attention'? The only 'tention it needs is inattention.

Another champion for self-examination, medical oncologist S.C. Tang of Miami, Florida in the US, said to the local newspaper, the Miami Herald: 'I think self-examination heightens public awareness...' Where do doctors come up with such nonsense? Are these women heightening 'public awareness' by examining themselves in the middle of Miami Beach?

In spite of the clear message from the extensive and well- conducted study reported above, doctors with a vested interest, intellectual or financial, have responded like breast surgeon Benjamin Anderson, clinical medical director of the Breast Care and Cancer Program at the University of Washington in the US: 'It remains important for women to be familiar with their own anatomy...' Now what is that supposed to mean? Is there a woman in this world who is not familiar with her own anatomy?

Suffer with me through one more example of doctor drivel, and then we will move on to the really bad news.

Kimberly Van Zee is a breast cancer surgeon in New York. She told Miami Herald reporters that self-examination should be continued but is 'not a be-all and end-all'. I'm not sure what Dr. Van Zee is trying to say. It is obviously not a 'be-all' since the procedure is a waste of time, money, and emotions. And who would consider it an 'end-all' when it hasn't done anything at all for the patients who have been tricked into using this technique? But it gets worse.

Dr. Van Zee also said to the Herald: 'Among motivated women who do regular breast self-examination and are very proficient at doing it, it might make a difference, but this study did not test that.'

Well, actually, that is precisely what it did test - did she even read the report? Now for the worst quote of the bunch. Dr. Tang - the one who favours breast self-examination to increase public awareness - says the be-all-end-all, so to speak, for breast cancer detection is 'regular checkups' and 'regular mammograms'. The dark and terrible truth is that these efforts have been completely unsuccessful in decreasing the mortality from breast cancer.

So what should you do?

Action to take:

First, I suggest that you leave your breasts alone unless there is something obvious, such as bleeding from a nipple or breast pain. But remember, pain in a breast is not related to breast cancer. Pain is usually caused by an inflammatory condition (mastitis) or fibrocystic disease.

(2) At any rate, if you are worried about breast cancer, instead of getting a mammogram get a blood test called the AMAS - the Anti Malignin Antibody Screen. Although this test is the best by far as a screen for cancer anywhere in your body, most doctors have never heard of it!

A pathologist, Dr. Gobosh of Harvard University medical school in the US, invented the test, but he has to fight the entire cancer establishment, especially the diagnostic branch of this medical mafia, to get the word out to the doctors in the offices and clinics where the battle begins. It has not been easy; millions of pounds are at stake from cervical smears, PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) testing (used as an indication for prostate cancer) and mammograms - all of which are useless.

For more information on the AMAS test, contact the manufacturers Oncolab, Inc. at 001 617 536 0095 or visit www.amascancertest.com  You can also email them on info@amascancertest.com or write to them at: Oncolab, Inc., 36 The Fenway, Boston MA 022150, USA.

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