A groundbreaking study indicates that certain early-stage breast cancers might be carefully monitored instead of immediately undergoing surgery. This approach, similar to treatments used in early prostate cancer, aims to reduce side effects and costs associated with invasive procedures.
According to The Wall Street Journal, approximately 300,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer annually, while an additional 50,000 are diagnosed with stage zero breast cancer, also known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). DCIS involves the presence of cancer cells in a woman's milk ducts but not in her breast tissue, posing little immediate risk but having the potential to develop into more dangerous, invasive cancer.
Nancy Chan, a breast-cancer specialist at NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, commented, \"This is really the first study to confirm our suspicions that there's a subset of low-risk patients that could do just as well without surgery. It's really encouraging.\"
However, some doctors caution that there is insufficient long-term data to ensure the safety of this practice. The decision on how aggressively to treat this form of early-stage cancer, and whether to classify it as cancer at all, remains controversial.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
