The role of self-examination in the early diagnosis of breast cancer: routine or real opportunities?

Abstract

Approximately 90% of breast tumors are detected by women themselves, but about 50% of them already have significant sizes and metastases in the lymph nodes at the time of detection. Breast self-examination is an effective means of detecting cancer in its early stages, especially among women who regularly perform it. The objective: to determine the level of awareness of Ukrainian women about the role of breast self-examination in the early diagnosis of breast cancer.Materials and methods. In order to realize the set goal, a voluntary internet survey of 508 women aged 18 to 65 was conducted in the period from December 20, 2022 to April 20, 2023, based on a previously prepared questionnaire. The previously compiled questionnaire contained 27 questions, which are divided into 6 sections.The surveyed women are divided into two groups by profession:I group – 206 women with medical education;II group – 302 women without medical education.During the survey female respondents independently made a decision to refuse to answer certain questions, which was later taken into account during the statistical processing of the obtained results.Results. During the survey, almost all the women of the studied groups stated that they were aware of the high incidence of breast cancer among Ukrainian women, the extreme difficulty of treatment and the fatal consequences of its late diagnosis. However, 132 (64.08%) female respondents of the 1st group and 243 (80.46%) female respondents of the 2nd group were confident in the impossibility of contracting breast cancer (p<0.05). Thus, women who voluntarily participated in the survey are from the category of the most active and informed, but with unfounded confidence in their absolute safety regarding breast cancer.Conclusions. As the research shows, the vast majority of women consider themselves to be sufficiently informed about breast cancer, however, existing unfounded confidence in the impossibility of getting the disease reduces their cancer bias, which is significantly higher among women of non-medical professions. Social networks and the Internet remain the main source of information about breast cancer and methods of self-monitoring of the condition of the mammary glands. The majority of women are aware of the presence of risk factors for precancerous diseases and breast cancer, however, most of them have delayed the debut of self-examination of the mammary glands, perform it irregularly and do not follow the rules of its conduct, which significantly reduces its diagnostic and prognostic value. Trusted family doctors do not conduct an annual clinical examination of the mammary glands during scheduled visits of women, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of screening programs in women of all age groups. From our point of view, self-examination, as part of breast cancer screening, does not play a leading role in the diagnosis of this disease, but instills in women an urgent need to constantly worry about their health.