In traditional medical school curriculum of cancer education in China, there is a very limited amount of teaching about breast cancer. The current situation may result in indifference to breast cancer education among medical students. Case-based learning (CBL) is a popular teaching method based on clinical cases. To date, there are few research reports about the application and research of CBL in breast cancer education. The aim of this study is to explore the teaching effect about CBL combined with lecture-based learning (LBL) in breast cancer education. Questions of breast cancer in National Medical Licensing Examination (NMLE) from 2011 to 2018 were analyzed. The questions about breast cancer were used as the evaluation criteria for this study. In this pilot study, a total of 140 students were randomly divided into a lecture only group (control group) and a lecture plus CBL group (observation group). The students in the observation group had better academic performances and abilities of memory, understanding, and application. They also had higher favorable impressions of the learning experience. In conclusion, more active approaches yield more learning and are viewed more favorably. CBL plus lecture can significantly improve education about breast cancer among medical students, which may be an important message for the evolution of curriculum in Chinese medical schools.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Case-based learning; Education; National Medical Licensing Examination; Teaching method.