Introduction:
Introduction. Breast cancer is still the most common cancer amongst women in Poland. The diagnosis of breast lesions through regular breast self-examination and mammography are important elements of the secondary prevention of breast cancer.

Aim:
To describe and analyse the implementation of secondary prevention of breast cancer by nurses, taking into account sociodemographic characteristics.

Material and Methods:
A survey was conducted among 184 nurses from the Lublin and Subcarpathian Provinces. The research tool was created by the authors. The data collected were statistically analyzed using Pearson χ2 test. The level of significance accepted: p<0.05.

Results:
Nurses frequently declared that they obtained information concerning the rules and techniques of breast self-examination during training in medical schools, and to a lesser extent from the professional literature. One third of the respondents regularly performed breast selfexamination, while half of the respondents performed it unsystematically. There was no association between sociodemographic factors characterizing the respondents and the knowledge on the rules of breast self-examination and the regularity of its execution. Every fifth nurse had had a mammography at least once.

Conclusions:
Knowledge and behaviour of nurses with regard to breast self-examination and mammography do not differ from those presented by other women. Sociodemographic factors characterizing the nurses surveyed had no effect on either the performance of breast self-examination and mammography or on its regularity. Nurses are aware of the importance of preventive nature of these examinations, but the majority do not perform them at all or do it incorrectly. This phenomenon is worrying because of the professional functions that nurses perform, especially in the field of health promotion and health education.