Have You Ever Heard of Stage 0 Breast Cancer?
Stage 0 breast cancer, also known as ductal carcinoma in situ, or D.C.I.S…is a small accumulation of abnormal-looking cells inside the milk ducts of the breast. There’s no lump, nothing to be felt. In fact, Stage 0 was almost never detected before the advent of mammography screening.
Now, with widespread screening, this particular diagnosis accounts for about 20 percent of all breast cancers. That is, if it actually is cancer. After all, it is confined to a milk duct, has not spread into the rest of the breast, and may never spread if left alone — it might even go away.
It could also break free and enter the breast tissue. But for now, it is hard to know in many cases whether it makes any difference to treat D.C.I.S. right away or to wait to see if it spreads, treating it then.
Read more at The New York Times.
As I understand it: our bodies contain millions of cancer cells, virtually all of which will never cause a problem. Some tumors that do begin to grow will also spontaneously resolve without intervention. I can imagine women becoming terrified and agreeing to (or demanding) aggressive intervention when told they have “stage 0 breast cancer” or “ductal carcinoma in situ” as opposed to being told they have abnormal cells that should be monitored but likely will not cause a problem.
Good to know. I suspect more cancerous maladies than breast cancer share this characteristic.
Nice post regarding the stage 0 breast cancer.New ways should be searched to diagnose disease like breast cancer, brain cancer,Treatment of Brain abscess so that treatment can be started to avoid further delay.