A study that was published in JAMA Internal Medicine reports suggests that breast cancer screening might be just as effective and less unpleasant when women can control the compression device themselves.
The investigators randomly assigned 584 women to either practice self-compression or undergo traditional mammograms in which a medical person positioned the breast in the mammographic unit found that when women compressed their own breasts in the machine, they achieved breast thickness that was within 3 millimeters of what women typically had with the traditional mammogram process.
The authors concluded that there was no difference between the two groups in the quality of images and women reported less pain when the handled the compression on their own and self-compression may be an effective option for women who want to be involved in their breast examination.
