Breast cancer stage 0 or in situ is indicated as Tis, N0, M0 and is the earliest form of breast cancer. In situ literally means in place. Breast cancer stage 0 is defined as a cancer which is contained within the breast ductal system. There are two types of stage0 breast cancer:
- Lobular Carcinoma in Situ (LCIS)
- Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS)
LCIS:
High risk for breast cancer is indicated by lobular carcinoma in situ. LCIS is often encountered by chance on biopsy and not classified as a malignancy by a lot of doctors and they investigate another area of concern. Although, LCIS does not act as a cancer and hence is not treated as a cancer, the microscopic features of LCIS are similar to malignancy and considered abnormal. Merely an indicator for a considerably increased cancer risk anywhere in the breast, LCIS, for which, bilateral simple mastectomy may be occasionally performed to the patients with a strong family history of the cancer of the breast. Doctors more likely perform clinical breast exams every 4 months in addition to yearly mammography on the LCIS patients and monitor them closely. In order to help the patients prevent the breast cancer development, doctors may give tamoxifen, a breast cancer treatment drug.
DCIS:
In DCIS cancer cells have not spread into the fatty breast tissue or to any other body part like lymph nodes and remain confined to milk ducts in the breast. 80% of the time DCIS can be detected as microcalcifications, tiny specks of calcium, on mammogram. DCIS has the very less likely probability to present itself as a mass without calcifications i.e. less than 5% of the time, and less commonly as a mass with calcifications i.e. 15% of the time. It is confirmed through breast biopsy. Breast-conserving therapy or BCT i.e. lumpectomy followed by mastectomy or radiation treatment is the standard treatment for DCIS with mastectomy and lumpectomy equally chosen by the DCIS patients to date. However, lumpectomy is sometimes favored over mastectomy in specific cases or vice versa. |
