Is there such thing as Stage 0 cancer?

In stage 0, there is no evidence of cancer cells or non-cancerous abnormal cells breaking out of the part of the breast in which they started, or getting through to or invading neighboring normal tissue.

What does Stage 0 DCIS mean?

What Is Stage 0 DCIS? Stage 0 breast cancer, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-invasive cancer where abnormal cells have been found in the lining of the breast milk duct. In Stage 0 breast cancer, the atypical cells have not spread outside of the ducts or lobules into the surrounding breast tissue.

Does DCIS need to be removed?

DCIS can’t spread outside the breast, but it still needs to be treated because it can sometimes go on to become invasive breast cancer (which can spread). In most cases, a woman with DCIS can choose between breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and simple mastectomy. But sometimes a mastectomy might be a better option.

What is the survival rate of DCIS?

Generally, patients diagnosed with DCIS have an excellent long-term breast-cancer-specific survival of around 98\% after 10 years of follow-up24–27 and a normal life expectancy.

How fast does DCIS progress?

It assumes that all breast carcinomas begin as DCIS and take 9 years to go from a single cell to an invasive lesion for the slowest growing lesions, 6 years for intermediate growing DCIS lesions, and 3 years for fast-growing DCIS lesions.

Is DCIS serious?

DCIS isn’t life-threatening, but having DCIS can increase the risk of developing an invasive breast cancer later on. When you have had DCIS, you are at higher risk for the cancer coming back or for developing a new breast cancer than a person who has never had breast cancer before.

Is chemo needed for DCIS?

Chemotherapy, a form of treatment that sends anti-cancer medications throughout the body, is generally not needed for DCIS. DCIS is non-invasive and remains within the breast duct, so there is no need to treat cancer cells that might have traveled to other areas of the body.

How serious is DCIS?

What does an Oncotype score of 27 mean?

A score between 21 and 25 means you have a medium risk of the cancer returning if you get hormone treatment. The benefits of chemotherapy may outweigh the risk of side effects. A score between 26 and 100 means you have a higher risk that the disease might come back.

Is stage 0 breast cancer actually cancer?

Also called carcinoma in situ, stage 0 is the earliest breast cancer stage. At stage 0, the breast mass is noninvasive, and there is no indication that the tumor cells have spread to other parts of the breast or other parts of the body.

What is the prognosis for stage 0 breast cancer?

Similar to stage 0, breast cancer at this stage is very treatable and survivable. When breast cancer is detected early, and is in the localized stage, the 5-year relative survival rate is 100\%.

What is the life expectancy of someone with breast cancer?

They also studied the data on 1,022 untreated patients in other studies, and found a median survival time of 2.3 years. In a few rare cases, women suffering from advanced breast cancer have experienced regressions.

What is the best treatment for Stage 1 breast cancer?

Surgery. Surgery is recommended for the majority of stage 1 cancers.