[The problem of the participation of women in a program for the early detection of breast cancer using self-examination].

The USSR/WHO program in Leningrad which included 120000 females aged 40-64 years showed the percentage of breast self-examinees to drop from 82.0 to 55.8, and from 52.3 to 17.9% in those who performed monthly self-examination. This is accounted for by the lack of interest in this problem in the mass media.