The Weird Science of Breast Self Exams

The less noticed part of the new guidelines for breast cancer screening is this little item:

The USPSTF recommends against teaching breast self-examination (BSE).

Now why would that be? Doesn't it make sense that finding lumps would help in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer? Even oncologists are confused about this one.

But the bottom line is that studies have found no health benefit at all from self exams. None. Zero. Asked why, the statisticians can only roll out the usual explanatory suspects: the high false positive rate leads to so much stress and so many unnecessary procedures that this outweighs the very few treatable but dangerous cancers found in this way. But nobody really knows.