Essentially, a clinical breast exam is a health professional, either a doctor or nurse, performing a thorough physical examination of your breasts. They will carefully examine your breasts and the surrounding area for any irregularities, much as you do when completing your own monthly breast self-exam. Young women with heightened risk factors, such as family history, should ask their family doctor about beginning clinical breast exams in their teenage years. Additionally, anytime you notice irregularities during your monthly breast self-exam, then it is time to schedule a clinical breast exam to follow up.
Breast cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality among women in the United States, even as early detection and treatment advances have helped contribute to a decline in deaths from breast cancer in recent decades. Mammography is an important screening tool, and the publication of long-term follow-up studies has led to a better understanding of the impact its use has on patient health. The American Cancer Society ACS organized an interdisciplinary guideline development group to review the available evidence on breast cancer mortality, quality of life, life expectancy, false-positive findings, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment, and to update their guideline on breast cancer screening in average-risk women. The recommendations emphasize the need to inform patients of the balance of potential harms and benefits of screening and engage in shared decision making. In women who are at average risk of breast cancer, routine screening with mammography should be initiated at 45 years of age. Screening should continue on an annual basis until 54 years of age.
For generations, women, usually starting at their first menstrual period, were taught to carefully check their breasts monthly for lumps, bumps, or unusual changes. Lift your arm over your head, using the opposite hand to check that breast. Press around the entire breast in a circular pattern, start to finish.
Isaacs, who is an associate professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond. During her talk, Dr. Isaacs discussed the practice of regular breast exams, both by clinicians and by patients, and whether the evidence supports them. For decades, she said, clinicians have encouraged women to do regular breast self-exams.