CIS

maize
maize Member Posts: 184
edited June 2014 in DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ)
"Carcinoma in situ is, by definition, a localized phenomenon, with no potential for metastasis unless it progresses into a "true" cancer. Therefore, its removal eliminates the risk of subsequent progression into a life-threatening condition. This concept is in some ways analogous to uprooting a tree - easy when a young sapling, and much more difficult later."

"Many forms of invasive carcinoma (the most common form of cancer) originate after progression of a CIS lesion.[1] Therefore, CIS is considered a precursor or incipient form of cancer that may, if left untreated long enough, transform into a malignant neoplasm."

"These terms are related since they represent the three steps of the progression toward cancer:

"Dysplasia is the earliest form of pre-cancerous lesion recognizable in a biopsy by a pathologist. Dysplasia can be low grade or high grade (see CIS below). The risk of low-grade dysplasia transforming into cancer is low.

Carcinoma in situ is synonymous with high-grade dysplasia in most organs. The risk of transforming into cancer is high.

Invasive carcinoma, commonly called cancer, is the final step in this sequence. It is a disease that, if left untreated, will invade and spread to surrounding tissues and structures of the host (hence its name), and may eventually be lethal."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinoma_in-situ

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Comments

  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited June 2012

    Maize, as I mentioned in reply to one of your other posts, there are many great sources of information about DCIS and cancer, but I wouldn't count Wikipedia as being one of them. I'm not saying that the info posted there may not be correct, but in general Wikipedia is not a vetted site so anyone can put down anything and there is no way to know what is correct and what is not. If you are interested in finding research on DCIS research, I'd suggest that you use PUBMED. And for reliable information, I'd suggest that you look to websites such as breastcancer.org (their information pages, not the Discussion Board), the Mayo Clinic site, the NCCN site, the National Cancer Institute, etc..

    By the way, one thing that this Wiki info points out is that "in-situ" cancers are very common - it's not just a breast cancer phenomenon.  And here's what's really interesting. With other types of cancers, there is no debate as to whether these in-situ cancers should be called "cancer" - they are considered cancer.  It's only within the breast cancer world where this is being questioned. 

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  • maize
    maize Member Posts: 184
    edited June 2012

    Beesie, you wrote:  "With other types of cancers, there is no debate as to whether these in-situ cancers should be called "cancer" - they are considered cancer.  It's only within the breast cancer world where this is being questioned. "

    I wonder why.

    (PS:  I do search Pubmed, Mayo and many other sites, some considered by some to be respected, evidence-based medicine sources.  The scientific data on DCIS is sometimes confusing to patients like me--there's so much disagreement among the experts, oncologists, surgeons, researchers! )

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited June 2012

    Here's my guess on why it's only breast cancer where there is the debate about whether in-situ cancer is cancer or not.... 

    1) Calling DCIS breast cancer and adding DCIS into the breast cancer numbers significantly increases the number of breast cancer cases.  I believe there is a desire on the part of those who work on breast cancer to have the numbers come down and taking DCIS out of the mix is the quickest way to affect this. 

    2) Breast cancer mostly affects women, and women, as we all know, over-react and aren't rational Surprised.  It's known that women who have DCIS over-estimate their future risk of invasive cancer.  I recall reading a study that showed that women with DCIS are just as likely to think that they will die of breast cancer as women who've been diagnosed with a more advanced breast cancer. Of course that's simply untrue - DCIS, if it never recurs as invasive cancer, is 100% survivable (as are all in-situ cancers). So there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about DCIS, both among the women who are diagnosed, and our doctors.  For some reason there are those who think that even if all the facts about DCIS and the future risk associated with DCIS were fully and properly explained to every woman diagnosed with DCIS, women would still over-react to the word "cancer". So rather than make the effort to explain things properly, let's just take the word "cancer" out of the definition of DCIS and then women won't have to worry their little heads about it. Yell

    Maybe that's not the reason, but reading the statements made by those who propose changing the name of DCIS, it sure seems like that's the reason.  

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  • maize
    maize Member Posts: 184
    edited June 2012

    Beesie,

    You may be exactly right.  There's so much anxiety about the risk of recurrence.

    Here's some text from the National Institutes of Health Conference in 2009:

    http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/102/3/161.short 

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  • Shayne
    Shayne Member Posts: 1,500
    edited June 2012

    Maybe women with DCIS think they are going to eventually die from bc, because of the treatment they go through?  LX, MX, Rads, hormonal therapy.......I try to think positive, but yea, I cant get that thought out of my mind that its possible.  MOre possible than anyone else without DCIS.

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