Clinical breast exam (CBE)

A clinical breast exam (CBE) is a physical exam of the breasts and the underarm area by a doctor, nurse or other trained healthcare professional.

If you tell your healthcare professional about a lump or change in your breasts, you may have a CBE. Your healthcare professional may also do it as part of your regular physical exam.

You don’t need to do anything special to prepare for a CBE. The same CBE technique is used if you have breast implants. The CBE includes the breasts, nipples, underarms and collarbone areas.

You will be asked to remove your clothing from the waist up and wear a gown during the exam. Talk to your healthcare professional about any areas you may be worried about.

The healthcare professional will first look at the breasts with you sitting and then when you are lying down. The healthcare professional looks for:

• changes or differences in the shape, size or thickness of the breasts
• differences in skin colour, temperature and texture in the breasts, such as redness, increased warmth or dimpling of the skin
• rashes
• visible lumps or swelling
• fluid, or discharge, leaking from the nipple
• nipple changes, such as a nipple starting to point inward (called inverted) or scaling

The healthcare professional will then feel the breasts for any issues. This is done with you lying down, which flattens the breast tissue. Breast tissue covers a large area. It extends from the middle of the chest into the armpit and up toward the collarbone and deep inside to the muscles of the chest wall. The healthcare professional will examine the entire area and will need to use some pressure to get at the deeper tissue. You may be asked to move your arms in different ways so the tissue is easier to examine.

The healthcare professional uses firm pressure with their fingers to feel for abnormalities including:

• lumps, including their size, shape and whether or not they move within the tissue
• hardening or thickening in the breast tissue
• tenderness or pain

The healthcare professional will also feel lymph nodes in the underarm area (called the axilla) and in the area above and below the collarbone for any lumps or hardening.

A CBE usually only takes a few minutes, but it is thorough enough to examine the whole breast area and give the healthcare professional the information they need.

The healthcare professional will talk to you about their findings and let you know if you need to have more tests.