Effectiveness of iBreast examination for screening breast lesions among women in India

Abstract

The breast has long been a representation of women's identity and an essential component of fertility. The breast lesions refer to an area of abnormal breast tissue. One frequent medical ailment that might worry women is breast lesions. It is estimated that at least 20% of females may develop breast lesions. It may vary in size, shape, and texture can be either benign or malignant. Mammography, clinical breast examination (CBE), and self-breast inspection are the accepted early breast cancer detection techniques. Mammography application in low and middle-income countries is limited because most of the women in these countries cannot afford it. Hence, iBreastExam was identified and validated as an alternative source for screening at the village level to identify breast lesions at an early stage. For the study, a cross-sectional research design using a quantitative research methodology was used. Adopted areas of the selected colleges were the setting for the study: MA Chidambaram College of Nursing, Adyar, Chennai; Sri Balaji College of Nursing, Chrompet, Chennai; Madha College of Nursing, Kundrathur, Chennai; Omayal Achi College of Nursing, Puzhal, Chennai. The sample size consisted of 14,000 women across all the 4 settings. A convenient sampling technique was used to select the samples for the study. A total of 13,988 women were screened, 55 women had positive breast lesions, and out of this 5 were confirmed to have breast cancer through mammogram diagnosis.