THERE is no proof that regular breast self-examination prevents deaths from breast cancer, according to a study involving close to 300,000 women. Despite the findings, the Bermuda TB & Health Association advocates that women continue the practice as a means of detecting potential problems as early as possible.

The BBC World Service and the New York Times this week reported that the 11-year study, conducted by an American group of researchers in China, found no difference in the death rates between women who examined their breasts and those who did not.

"The difference is not statistically significant," the newspaper reported yesterday. "But the women who examined their breasts did find more lumps, resulting in more biopsies for lumps that turned out not to be cancerous. Yet there was no evidence that those cancers that were detected were found at an earlier stage."

Mammography is not widely available in China. Of the 266,064 women involved, there were 135 breast cancer deaths among the women assigned to self-examination and 131 in the women who served as controls.

The results of the study - supported by a similar one that began in Russia around the same time - were consistent with those yielded in 1997, five years after it began. At the time, many said insufficient time had passed for the findings to be conclusive.

"The researchers ruled out the possibility that the women who were assigned to examine their breasts did not do so, or that the control group started examining their breasts on their own," reported the Times. It added that great lengths were taken to ensure the examinations were done properly and that women in the control group did not have their breasts examined by doctors during routine physical exams.

While agreeing that the findings were more than likely correct, Rachel Andrade, education officer at the TB & Cancer Health Association, said that women should continue the practice.

"Breast self-examinations have never been promoted to be a source of finding cancer," she said. "They're intended to make women more breast aware so that they will notice any changes to their breasts. What we try to advocate here, is to have your mammogram today, six months from now have an examination by a health care professional and in between that time, regularly examine your breasts.

"(The study is) probably right in that sense that it does not help you detect breast cancer, but if there's a new lump, if you notice a thickening to your breast skin, if there's a change in texture, if there are changes in the nipple, if there's discharge from the nipple, if there's any pain or discomfort - any of these might be the first sign of a problem."

A woman's breasts are lumpy by nature and ever-changing, Mrs. Andrade said. It's only through regular examination that she can tell if any changes occur.

"As you go through your menstrual cycle, your breasts change. If you notice a deviation from what is normal for you at that time, it will provide the impetus to go and make an appointment with your doctor and get it looked at professionally. What it does, is make you more breast aware. It means that you are now looking out for changes."