Precancerous Breast Lesions Cause Unnecessary Worry

Mar. 24 -- TUESDAY, Feb. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Many women diagnosed with a precancerous breast lesion known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are highly anxious about their prognosis, even though they face a low risk of a recurrence or of developing invasive breast cancer, a new study finds.

"Many of these women are living as if they're waiting for the other shoe to drop," said lead researcher Dr. Ann Partridge, an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham & Women's Hospital, in Boston.

Her team published the findings Feb. 12 in the online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study noted that 28 percent of the participants "believed that they had a moderate or greater chance of DCIS spreading to other places in their bodies, despite the fact that metastatic breast cancer actually occurs following a diagnosis of DCIS less than 1 percent of the time."

DCIS involves abnormal cells in the lining of the breast duct that have not spread outside the duct, according to the National Cancer Institute. In 2006, DCIS accounted for more than 20 percent of all diagnoses linked to breast cancer in the United States -- about 62,000 cases, the study reported.

The increasing percentage of DCIS diagnoses over the last 20 years or more has been attributed to improved detection from the increasing use of screening mammography, experts say.

But all too often, women are unnecessarily frightened by a DCIS diagnosis, said the authors of the study, which involved almost 500 women newly diagnosed with DCIS.

"In the complex treatment decision-making process, it is often possible to lose sight of the fact that DCIS poses limited risks to a woman's overall mortality," the study authors noted.

Nevertheless, approximately 38 percent of those surveyed thought they had at least a moderate risk of getting an invasive cancer over the next five years, and 53 percent reported intrusive or avoidant thoughts about DCIS. That number declined to 31 percent 18 months after diagnosis, the researchers said.