Potential limits of physical examination and breast self-examination in detecting small cancers of the breast. An unselected population-based study of 1302 cases.

Neither a change in the average or median size of breast cancers, nor in the extent of axillary lymph node involvement, was seen in a total, unselected population study before and after an intensive public and professional education project in San Diego County. Comparison of these data with those from the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project lends strong support for the greatly increased use of mammography if it is to be possible to detect the smaller, more curable cancers of the breast.