Study Questions On Early Treatment Of Stage 0 Breast Cancer

More than 100,000 women with DCIS were part of the investigation, and the study was carried out over 20 years, so this is not a short term 2 year study with very few participants. Stage 0 breast cancer is non-invasive and is located only in the milk ducts of the breast, according to breastcancer.org. However, some women can subsequently develop a second breast cancer after having a DCIS breast cancer removed and this may (in a low proportion of patients) be invasive and ultimately fatal.

The study published in the British Medical Journal, the scientists have found that light drinking, defined as one standard drink a day for women, and two for men, is now linked with a minimal increase in risk of all cancers. The number, researchers said, was similar to that of women who’d not been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. To seek for answers, the researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham Women’s Hospital in Boston, used data from two large studies in the United States.

To reach their conclusion, the team analyzed data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database, identifying 108,196 women aged 15-69 who were diagnosed with DCIS between 1988 and 2011.

At 20 years after a DCIS diagnosis, the overall mortality rate was 3.3%.

Non-smoking men showed no higher risk for cancer.

They assessed risk of total cancer and known alcohol related cancers including cancer of the colorectum, female breast, liver, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx and esophagus. Meanwhile, alcoholic drinks cause a moderate increase in the chance of breast cancer in women, but can also help to prevent heart disease and high blood pressure. That increase in early DCIS detection should correspond to a decrease in breast cancer cases, but it hasn’t. In patients who underwent lumpectomy, radiotherapy was associated with a lower risk of ipsilateral invasive recurrence but not breast cancer-specific mortality at 10 years.

“The analysis fuels a growing concern that we should rethink our strategy for the detection and treatment of DCIS”, the researchers write. 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 researchers warn that people who have family history of cancer should really limit the amounts of alcohol they consume, because this study does show an increased risk for alcohol-related cancers, even if the person is lightly drinking.