ObjectiveTo explore the feasibility of homemade domestic breast palpation imaging (BPI) instead of clinical breast palpation examination (CBE) for screening breast masses. MethodsThe patients who received breast ultrasonography (BUS), BPI examinations and CBE in the Sichuan Cancer Hospital from March 2022 to September 2022 were retrospectively collected. The result of BUS examination was used as the criteria to compare the efficiency and difference between the BPI examination and CBE in detecting breast masses. The effects of the patients’ body mass index, breast volume, tumor location, benign and malignant tumor, and maximum tumor diameter on the accuracy of breast tumor detection by BPI system were further analyzed. ResultsA total of 102 patients were included in this study. Among the 90 patients with breast mass detected by BUS, 76 cases were detected by BPI and 51 cases were detected by CBE. In the 12 patients without tumor mass detected by BUS, only 11 cases patients without tumor mass were detected by BPI and CBE. The sensitivity and accuracy of breast tumor mass screening by the BPI were higher than those by the CBE (84.4% vs. 56.7%, 85.2% vs. 60.7%, respectively), and the specificity was similar (91.6%, both). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (95% confidence interval, 95%CI) of BPI and CBE for screening breast masses were 0.903 (0.791, 0.970) and 0.799 (0.747, 0.851), respectively. The former was higher than the latter (Z=2.494, P=0.013). The consistencies were moderate (Kappa=0.518, P<0.001), general (Kappa=0.204, P=0.002), moderate (Kappa=0.518, P<0.001) between the BPI and BUS, between CBE and BUS, and between BPI and CBE for screening breast masses, respectively. The results of multivariate analysis of binary logistics regression indicated that the benign tumor mass was not easily detected [OR (95%CI） was 9.600（1.328, 69.400), P=0.025] and the tumor mass with breast volume ＜350 mL was easily detected [OR (95%CI） was 0.157 (0.030, 0.818), P=0.028], the diameter of tumor mass had no obvious influence on breast tumor mass screening by the BPI. ConclusionAccording to the preliminary results of this study, BPI can improve the sensitivity of detecting breast masses and make up for the lack of objective records of CBE, but BPI cannot replace CBE at present.