ArticleWomen's health (London, England)
The role of clinical breast examination and fine needle aspiration cytology in early detection of breast cancer: A cross-sectional study nested in a cohort in a low-resource setting.
Article in Women's health (London, England). The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Breast and cervical cancer screening in a semi-urban African setting: evidence from Franceville, Gabon (2015-2021).Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Advanced Metastatic Bilateral Breast Carcinoma in a Pregnant Woman With HIV During the Second Trimester: A Rare Case Report and Review of the Current Literature.Clinical case reports · 2025Article
- Management challenges of invasive breast carcinoma in a male patient who refused treatment: a case report.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Breast fine-needle aspiration cytology in the era of core-needle biopsy: what is its role?Journal of pathology and translational medicine · 2025Review
- Breast Cancer Screening among Young Women in Tanzania: Findings from the 2022 Demographic and Health Survey.Cancer control : journal of the Moffitt Cancer CenterArticle
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundBreast cancer is prevalent worldwide, with disparities in screening, diagnosis, treatment outcomes, and survival. In Africa, the majority of women are diagnosed at advanced stages, affecting treatment outcomes. Screening is one of the best strategies to reduce mortality rates caused by this cancer. Yet in a resource-constrained setting, there is limited access to screening and early detection services, which are available only at a few referral hospitals.
objectivesWe aimed to evaluate the prevalence and screening results of breast cancer using clinical breast examination coupled with fine needle aspiration cytology in a resource-constraint setting.
designA combined cross-sectional and cohort study.
methodsWomen at risk of developing breast cancer in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania were invited, through public announcements, to their primary healthcare facilities. A questionnaire was used to assess the participants' characteristics. The women received a clinical breast examination, and detectable lesions were subjected to a confirmatory fine needle aspiration cytology or an excisional biopsy. Preliminary data from this ongoing breast cancer control program were extracted and analyzed for this study.
resultsA total of 3577 women were screened for breast cancer; their mean age was 47 ± 7.53 years. About a third of them (1145, 32%) were practicing self-breast examination at least once a month. Of 200 (5.6%) with abnormal clinical breast examination, 18 (9%) were confirmed to be breast cancer, making the prevalence to be 0.5%. The vast majority of participants with breast cancer (13, 72.2%) had early disease stages, and infiltrating ductal carcinoma, no special type, was the most common (15, 83.3%) histopathology subtype. Hormonal receptor status determination results indicated that 11 (61.1%), 7 (38.9%), and 5 (27.8%) of the tumors overexpressed estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal receptor-2, respectively.
conclusionOur study demonstrates 5.6% of Tanzanian women have abnormal clinical breast examination findings, with 9% having breast cancer. Nearly three-quarters (72.2%) of breast cancer screened for early disease were detected in the early disease stages. This finding suggests that organized screening with clinical breast examination coupled with fine needle aspiration cytology, which is a simple and cost-effective screening method, has the potential to improve early detection and outcomes for breast cancer patients in a resource-constraint setting.
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