INTRODUCTION: This study aimed at the identification of the ways of detection and the clinical stage of breast neoplasia, and the kinds of treatments used in Women from Sergipe. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Descriptive and exploratory study based on the quantitative approach carried out with forty women in chemotherapy treatment in Aracaju, Sergipe, interviewed in the period from March to October of 2009, through a semi structured form applied after explaining it to the patients and getting their free consents. The data analysis was made through EPI6 software. The data discussion was based on the national and international literature review related to the theme studied. RESULTS: Most of the women in the study detected breast cancer through accidental palpation (17;38, 6%) and breast auto-examination (17;38, 6%). Concerning cancer staging, 8 women (18, 1%) presented a low type (I, IA, IIA) and 36 (81, 9%) high stage (IIB, III, IIIA, IIIB or IV). The applied treatments were surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. 39 women (88, 6%) underwent surgery. From these, 27 (69, 2%) had mastectomy, 21 (47, 7%) faced neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and for 1 woman (4, 76%) this treatment was associated to radiotherapy. The adjuvant therapy applied was, exclusively, the chemotherapy, for 25 women (56, 8%). DISCUSSION: The significant number of patients who discovered the breast neoplasia through accidental palpitation and auto-examination revealed that the discovery was conditioned to luck and/or lag, favoring the nodule growth and, consequently, a dark prognostic due to the advanced stage. Moreover, questioning arouse concerning the relation to the access and/or adhesion of women to the premature detection that should be offered by health professionals while these women are being diagnosed. The need for neoadjuvant therapy, whose objective aims the tumor size reduction in order to help the surgery, prevailed among women, and this fact confirms the advanced stage on the neoplasia in most cases. 60% of the analyzed women underwent surgery, and this fact makes them more susceptible of a worse life quality when it is compared to a conservative mammary treatment. CONCLUSION: The results revealed some deficiency in the early detection, reflected in the highest frequency of aggressive surgery and pre-surgery treatment, due to the advanced stage and the metastasis presence. The need for early detection actions has to be accepted by health professionals and managers, so that less aggressive treatments can be offered, resulting in a better prognosis and life quality as well.