Does stage 0 breast cancer require surgery?
Stage 0 breast cancer treatment
Because it's not possible to predict whether a stage 0 breast cancer will invade the breast tissue around it, most people undergo treatment, which may include surgery, radiation therapy and hormone therapies such as tamoxifen.
Mastectomy, or the removal of your breast, was once the standard treatment for stage 0 breast cancer, according to a 2017 research review . But it's not always necessary today. Some of the reasons to consider mastectomy are: you have DCIS in more than one part of your breast.
Often called “stage zero breast cancer,” DCIS growths are confined to the inside of the breast's milk ducts, and many never develop into invasive cancers. Several treatment options are available, and opinions about the optimal treatment for DCIS vary widely among doctors.
Surgery is the main treatment for DCIS. Most women are offered breast-conserving surgery. If there are several areas of DCIS in the breast, doctors may do a mastectomy to make sure that all of the cancer is removed.
According to Breastcancer.org, most recurrences happen within 5 to 10 years after initial diagnosis. The chances of a recurrence are less than 30%.
The number stages are: stage 0 – the cancer is where it started (in situ) and hasn't spread. stage 1 – the cancer is small and hasn't spread anywhere else. stage 2 – the cancer has grown, but hasn't spread.
In Stage 0 breast cancer, the atypical cells have not spread outside of the ducts or lobules into the surrounding breast tissue. Ductal Carcinoma In Situ is very early cancer that is highly treatable, but if it's left untreated or undetected, it can spread into the surrounding breast tissue.
After treatment for stage 0 breast cancer, there's a small risk of recurrence or future development of invasive breast cancer.
More than 98 percent of patients who are diagnosed with stage 0 breast cancer survive at least five years after their original diagnosis. While a few patients will experience recurrences, the survival rates are still encouraging.
Stage 0: Stage zero (0) describes disease that is only in the ducts of the breast tissue and has not spread to the surrounding tissue of the breast. It is also called non-invasive or in situ cancer (Tis, N0, M0). Stage IA: The tumor is small, invasive, and has not spread to the lymph nodes (T1, N0, M0).
How long does it take for DCIS to become invasive?
It assumes that all breast carcinomas begin as DCIS and take 9 years to go from a single cell to an invasive lesion for the slowest growing lesions, 6 years for intermediate growing DCIS lesions, and 3 years for fast-growing DCIS lesions.
DCIS is also called intraductal carcinoma or stage 0 breast cancer. DCIS is a non-invasive or pre-invasive breast cancer. This means the cells that line the ducts have changed to cancer cells but they have not spread through the walls of the ducts into the nearby breast tissue.

Most women with DCIS or breast cancer can choose to have breast-sparing surgery, usually followed by radiation therapy. Most women with DCIS or breast cancer can choose to have a mastectomy. You have small breasts and a large area of DCIS or cancer. You have DCIS or cancer in more than one part of your breast.
In situ means "in place." Stage 0 cancers are still located in the place they started. They have not spread to nearby tissues. This stage of cancer is often curable. Surgery can usually remove the entire tumor.
Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) can be described as a stage 1 (earliest stage) to a stage IV (most advanced stage), depending on the size of the tumor and how far it has spread. Learn more about the stages of breast cancer.
Generally, patients diagnosed with DCIS have an excellent long-term breast-cancer-specific survival of around 98% after 10 years of follow-up24–27 and a normal life expectancy.
DCIS is considered the earliest form of breast cancer. DCIS is noninvasive, meaning it hasn't spread out of the milk duct and has a low risk of becoming invasive. DCIS is usually found during a mammogram done as part of breast cancer screening or to investigate a breast lump.
Cancer type: Aggressive cancers like inflammatory breast cancer and triple-negative breast cancer are harder to treat. They're more likely to come back and spread.
Radiation therapy for DCIS is usually given every day, 5 days a week, for 3-4 weeks. Learn about going through radiation therapy. For a summary of research studies on lumpectomy plus whole breast radiation therapy in the treatment of DCIS, visit the Breast Cancer Research Studies section.
Radiation is typically used after lumpectomy. But it might not be necessary if you have only a small area of DCIS that is considered low grade and was completely removed during surgery.
Should I get a double mastectomy for DCIS?
Mastectomy involves removal of the whole breast and is usually recommended if the DCIS affects a large area of the breast, if it has not been possible to get a clear area of normal tissue around the DCIS by wide local excision, or if there is more than one area of DCIS.
DCIS, also known as Stage 0 breast cancer, is abnormal cells that are confined to the milk ducts of the breast. The debate is whether all cases of DCIS should be treated immediately with surgery and additional therapy, or if patients should be monitored instead and treated only if the cancer spreads.
There is also evidence from epidemiological studies that there is an inherited predisposition to DCIS. Women with DCIS have been shown to be 2.4 times (95 % CI 0.8, 7.2) more likely to have an affected mother and sister with breast cancer than controls [13].
Will DCIS return or spread? Since DCIS is a noninvasive form of cancer, it does not spread throughout the body (metastasize). For patients having a lumpectomy with radiation, the risk of local recurrence ranges from 5% to 15%. For those having mastectomy, the risk of local recurrence is less than 2%.
Hodgkin lymphoma has a high cure rate with primary treatment with multiagent chemotherapy, with a recurrence rate of 10% to 13%.