Health & Medicine
Breast Cancer: Some Women More Susceptible To Rare Kind
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Aug 22, 2015 07:01 PM EDT
New findings published in JAMA Oncology reveal that some women are more susceptible to rare types of early breast cancer. This typically included younger black women who had a greater chance of being diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, otherwise known as DCIS.
Though DCIS is oftentimes referred to as stage 0 cancer that is confined to milk ducts in the breast, researchers are still not sure if greater incidence of treatment is helping to save lives.
"The reason for decline may be better distinction between DCIS and invasive cancer, but overdiagnosis is likely, given that the incidence of DCIS has increased dramatically over the same period," the researchers noted. "It is unlikely that the decline in mortality is due to more effective treatments because we show here that mortality rates did not vary with specific treatment."
In this recent study, researchers analyzed data collected from 100,000 women as part of the Suveillance, Epidemiology and End Results or SEER database, comparing the rates of death from breast cancer after a DCIS diagnosis to those of the general female population, which they followed for 20 years. Women in the study were between the ages of 15 and 69.
Findings revealed that the mortality rate for breast cancer among women in the study was about 3.3 percent, while the death rate was higher for women who'd been diagnosed before age 35 -- 4.6 percent higher than for older women, and about 4 percent higher for black women than for non-Hispanic white women.
"Long-term epidemiology studies have demonstrated that the removal of 50,000 to 60,000 DCIS lesions annually has not been accompanied by a reduction in the incidence of invasive breast cancers," experts wrote in the commentary. "This is in contrast to the experience with removal of colonic polyps and intraepithelial neoplasia lesions of the cervix, in which the removal of precursor lesions has led to a decrease in the incidence of colon and cervical cancer, respectively. We now know that breast cancer encompasses a range of behaviors, from aggressive to indolent; the latter are more likely to surface with screening. The analysis of Narod et al fuels a growing concern that we should rethink our strategy for the detection and treatment of DCIS."
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First Posted: Aug 22, 2015 07:01 PM EDT
New findings published in JAMA Oncology reveal that some women are more susceptible to rare types of early breast cancer. This typically included younger black women who had a greater chance of being diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, otherwise known as DCIS.
Though DCIS is oftentimes referred to as stage 0 cancer that is confined to milk ducts in the breast, researchers are still not sure if greater incidence of treatment is helping to save lives.
"The reason for decline may be better distinction between DCIS and invasive cancer, but overdiagnosis is likely, given that the incidence of DCIS has increased dramatically over the same period," the researchers noted. "It is unlikely that the decline in mortality is due to more effective treatments because we show here that mortality rates did not vary with specific treatment."
In this recent study, researchers analyzed data collected from 100,000 women as part of the Suveillance, Epidemiology and End Results or SEER database, comparing the rates of death from breast cancer after a DCIS diagnosis to those of the general female population, which they followed for 20 years. Women in the study were between the ages of 15 and 69.
Findings revealed that the mortality rate for breast cancer among women in the study was about 3.3 percent, while the death rate was higher for women who'd been diagnosed before age 35 -- 4.6 percent higher than for older women, and about 4 percent higher for black women than for non-Hispanic white women.
"Long-term epidemiology studies have demonstrated that the removal of 50,000 to 60,000 DCIS lesions annually has not been accompanied by a reduction in the incidence of invasive breast cancers," experts wrote in the commentary. "This is in contrast to the experience with removal of colonic polyps and intraepithelial neoplasia lesions of the cervix, in which the removal of precursor lesions has led to a decrease in the incidence of colon and cervical cancer, respectively. We now know that breast cancer encompasses a range of behaviors, from aggressive to indolent; the latter are more likely to surface with screening. The analysis of Narod et al fuels a growing concern that we should rethink our strategy for the detection and treatment of DCIS."
Related Articles
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone