Clinical Breast Exam (CBE)

A clinical breast examination is an examination of your breasts by a health care professional, such as a doctor, nurse practitioner, nurse or doctor’s assistant. This exam is also known as a CBE.

You should start having CBEs in your 20s and 30s as part of a regular health exam by a health professional. It’s best to have them every 3 years. After age 40, you should have your breasts examined by a health professional every year.

A CBE is a complement to mammograms and an opportunity for you and your doctor or nurse to discuss changes in your breasts, as well as early detection testing and factors in your history that might make you more likely to have breast cancer.

When you have a clinical breast exam done, you will be taken to a private room where you will be asked to take off all clothing above your waist.

If you want, you may have someone else in the room with you during the exam.

Clinical Breast Exam — Sitting Up

Next, a health care professional, such as a doctor, nurse practitioner, nurse or doctor’s assistant, will look at your breasts to see if there are any changes in shape, skin or the nipple.

You might be asked to put your arms relaxed at your side, above your head or on your hips.

The doctor or nurse will also check for anything abnormal in the lymph nodes above and below your collarbone and under your arm.

Clinical Breast Exam — Lying Down

The doctor or nurse will then ask you to lie down. Using the fingertips, he or she will press on your breast tissue using three levels of pressure: light, medium and deep.

Your practitioner’s finger pads will move up and down in even rows across your breast. Breast tissue runs vertically (up and down) from your collarbone to your bra line and horizontally (side to side) from breastbone to the middle of your underarm.

Breast Cancer Location

Did you know that most breast cancers occur in the upper and outer areas of the breast? Note the shaded area in the picture below.

Next: Breast Self-exam (BSE)