NEW THINKING ABOUT RISKS OF ONE FORM OF BREAST CANCER : WOMEN.Byline: Charles Bankhead Medical Tribune News Service Women who have breast cancer that is confined to their milk ducts have little risk of dying from the disease, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. research presented here last week at a breast cancer conference. The findings should help allay women's fears about the risks associated with ductal carcinoma in situ ductal carcinoma in situ Intraductal carcinoma, DIN 3 Surgical oncology A localized form of breast CA, in which malignant cells are confined to the duct wall; DCIS has a heterogeneous biologic behavior and morphology, and is detectable by mammography Epidemiology (DCIS DCIS ductal carcinoma in situ. DCIS Ductal carcinoma in situ, see there ), the investigators said. Because of the low mortality associated with the disease, women may want to consider treatments other than surgery, which currently is used to treat most cases, they said. The new study, based on a National Cancer Institute database, covered 12,946 women who were diagnosed with DCIS between 1978 and 1992 when they were age 40 or older. Most of the women had the cancerous cells removed surgically. Slightly more than 1 percent of the women diagnosed with DCIS died of breast cancer during an average follow-up of four years. Among women followed for up to 10 years, 2.6 percent died of breast cancer, reported Virginia L. Ernster, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics biostatistics /bio·sta·tis·tics/ (-stah-tis´tiks) biometry. bi·o·sta·tis·tics n. The science of statistics applied to the analysis of biological or medical data. at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). School of Medicine in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . ``There haven't been any population-based studies of the causes of death among women diagnosed with DCIS,'' Ernster said at the San Antonio San Antonio (săn ăntō`nēō, əntōn`), city (1990 pop. 935,933), seat of Bexar co., S central Tex., at the source of the San Antonio River; inc. 1837. Breast Cancer Symposium. ``These results show that when a woman has DCIS that is diagnosed and treated, the likelihood she will die of breast cancer is very low, even at 10 years.'' The study emphasizes that DCIS is not a life-threatening disease over the short term and that women have time to consider how they want to proceed with treatment, she said. Another treatment option is radiation therapy. However, Ernster cautioned that a number studies have suggested that not all DCIS is alike; some forms of the cancer appear to be more aggressive and more likely to develop into invasive breast cancer. ``DCIS is not an emergency,'' said Dr. Laura Esserman, a breast cancer surgeon in San Francisco, who was not affiliated with the new study. ``We have time to be thoughtful and perhaps try to treat the disease with approaches other than surgery. |
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