As professional breast oncologists, we are willing to acknowledge the fact that with regular and reasonable breast self-examination, women can often notice abnormal breast changes earlier than any other person. Such changes sometimes may not be easily detected by physicians based on physical examination alone. While there are no studies directly confirming that self-examination reduces breast cancer mortality, there is no denying that it has this potential. Because all of the screening studies that have used self-screening as a primary tool have had a large number of problems with poor adherence to self-screening, this suggests that if self-screening is well adhered to, there must be significant room for improvement in its value. Frequent self-testing should have a greater potential for early diagnosis than the physician-centered screenings that are conducted only once a year or so. The detection of small palpable breast cancers by self-examination is not in doubt. This would at least increase the chances of breast preservation and improve the quality of life. In Chinese women with relatively small breasts, the value of self-examination versus physical examination is likely to be even greater.