Ductal in situ cancer in non-palpable breast lesions

Background: Great importance in detecting in situ cancer is in the fact that epithelial layer is deprived of the blood and lymph vessels, so metastases can develop only when basal membrane has been broken. Methods: The paper included 40 operated women in whom preoperatively suspect non-palpable lesion had been verified. Preoperative diagnostics included use of high-resolution mammography, aimed mammography, palpatory examination of surgeon-oncologist, as well as fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy and cytology analysis of the sample. Methodology of the work implied the use of stereotaxic marking, specimen mammography and extempore histopathology analysis. Results: From 40 investigated patients, the breast malignant tissue lesion was diagnosed in 18 patients (45%). Two of these lesions (11.1%) were histopathologically verified as ductal in situ cancer (DCIS) seven (38.9%) as DCIS with present invasive component, and in the remaining nine patients (50%) other cancer types were found. Conclusion: Comparing our results with data from the hospital registry of the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia (IORS) for 2001, where 1173 patients with the malignant lesions were registered of whom 13 (1.1%) patients with DCIS, we may conclude that there is statistically significant difference in number of detected cancers in this early stage. This further limits surgical intervention to tumorectomy in DCIS, and in DCIS with present invasive component it enables conserving operation in majority of cases. In both cases, disease prognosis is good, what speaks in favor of screening examination and routine application of the most contemporary procedures.