When abnormal cells are detected inside the milk duct of a woman’s breast, she faces a difficult dilemma. Does she have surgery and possibly radiation treatment due to the relatively small risk that they become cancerous, or does she forgo treatment in hopes that she falls in the majority for whom these cells pose no serious risk?
M.T. is a 42-year-old mother of three who had no family history of breast cancer. She’s had yearly mammograms since she turned 40. This time, the results came back suspicious with “microcalcifications.” She underwent an ultrasound-guided biopsy that showed the presence of these abnormal cells in her milk duct, which is known by the medical term ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). M.T. was left with a difficult decision. She was advised by her breast cancer specialists to have either a lumpectomy (localized excision of the area) or a full mastectomy. During this same week, I had another patient, C.R., a 49-year-old mother of one who had the same findings.
