Clinical Breast Exam

A clinical breast exam is a physical check by a healthcare provider to detect lumps or changes in breast tissue for early cancer detection.

Overview

During a clinical breast exam, you can expect your physician to carefully examine your breasts for any lumps or irregularities. You may be asked to raise your arms over your head, let them hang by your sides, or press your hands against your hips.

Using the pads of the fingers to feel for lumps, your doctor checks your entire breast, underarm, and collarbone area, one side at a time. The lymph nodes near the breast are examined to see if they are enlarged.

Your doctor looks for differences in size or shape between your breasts. Your doctor will also check the skin of your breasts for a rash, dimpling, or other abnormal signs. Your nipples may be squeezed to check for fluid.

Identifying irregularities

If you have a lump, your doctor will feel its size, shape, and texture, and see if the lump moves easily. A lump is generally the size of a pea before anyone can feel it.

Benign lumps often feel different from cancerous ones. Lumps that are soft, smooth, round, and movable are likely to be benign. A hard, oddly shaped lump that feels firmly attached within the breast is more likely to be cancer, but further tests are needed to make an accurate diagnosis.

It’s important for women to be familiar with how their breasts normally look and feel and report any changes to a doctor right away. Our physicians can also assist you in learning to perform monthly self-breast exams for regular screening.

Breast image tests

Your doctor may order other imaging tests if abnormalities are found during a breast exam or mammogram. Imaging tests are useful to identify cancer in its early stages, find a mass or lump, predict whether a tumor is likely to be cancerous, show the tumor’s location, find out the stage of the cancer, and plan treatment. Although imaging tests can be helpful to physicians, they are only part of cancer diagnosis and treatment and often have limitations that require additional testing methods.

Types of imaging tests

Tissue analysis can help your doctor learn about specific features of a cancer to determine the best course of treatment, including tumor size and features, hormone receptors, HER2 status and tumor grade.

  • CT scan: A CT (computed tomography) scan uses X-rays taken from different angles combined for more detailed images. CT is typically used to view the chest to determine if breast cancer has spread to other body areas or used to guide a biopsy needle into an abnormal area.
  • PET scan: PET (positron emission tomography) scans use radioactive sugar to show cancerous cells throughout the body. PET scans are often used in conjunction with CT scans to determine if cancer has spread. 

Ask your doctor

The imaging tests your doctor recommends may depend on several individual factors including your age, gender, overall health, biopsy or clinical breast exam results, and preference. Please be sure to ask your doctor which imaging tests are best for you, or helpful in understanding your diagnosis.