On Doctoring MEDLINE searches, with reference librarian comments

The question was

"Prevention and Causes of Breast Cancer"

1 :  Breast neoplasms/pc,dh [Prevention & Control, Diet Therapy]         {3202}
2 :  limit 1 to (human and english language)         {2853}
3 :  limit 2 to (local holdings and female)         {2101}
4 :  limit 3 to (local holdings and human and english language         {353}
and review articles and yr=1990-1999)
5 :  from 4 keep 1,10-11,19,30          {5}

Reference Librarian comments

Because the subject is so big, I might actually make this into two
separate MEDLINE searches. Prevention & Etiology are of course
related, but it's huge.

Almost always, you should "explode" the topic. And you could almost
always "focus" the MeSH term. And, again ... given that the topic is
so very very big, maybe a REVIEW article or an EBM article would help.

I did a similar search, and here's my strategy. (I'll did only the
"prevention & control" aspect...). More could be done with it, of
course, but it's a start...

1 : 
exp *Breast neoplasms/pc [Prevention & Control]
2301

2 : 
limit 1 to (human and english language)
1868

3 : 
limit 2 to review articles
284

4 : 
limit 2 to (evidence based medicine reviews and topic reviews)
1