[The usefulness of monthly breast self-examination for the early detection of breast cancer].

At present, the influence of BSE on mortality reduction from breast cancer is not yet clear. Within a larger case-control study in 195 cases and 390 controls, BSE practice, factors influencing BSE-frequency and the impact of BSE on tumor size as well as on the number of positive lymph-nodes have been investigated. 44% of women practised BSE monthly. Factors significantly positively correlated with BSE were older age, higher education, prior breast biopsy, participation in cervical cancer screening and regular physical breast examination. In comparison to non-users, BSE users had a relative risk for breast cancer more than 3 cm in tumor size of 0.65 (0.35-1.21). The relative risk of BSE-users for breast cancer with more than 3 positive lymph-nodes at the time of diagnosis amounted to 0.62 (0.33-1.18).