Easrly form of breast cancer may be renamed
Ductal carcinoma in-siti or DCIS is a common nonmalignant tumor of the breast and it may be up for a name change. The reason? According to a panel of many US health experts, the word ‘carcinoma’ scares too many women.
The panel feels that the word sends out a false feeling of fear and despair in women for an affliction which is around 100 percent survivable. Most women get treated for DCIS right away by having the the affected tissue removed or with radiation so really little is known about how women would do with little or no treatment.
Still there are others in the medical community that feel this name change is not a good idea. Some say that the cells that create DCIS are the same that are found in some progressive forms of breast cancer and feel that DCIS may in fact be a precursor to breast cancer.
ThinkPinker.com really takes the center path here. While it is not good to invoke fear when it not necessary, if something can be a risk you certainly don’t want to downplay that risk. It seems that there has to be some sort of middle ground that has to be reached and the spread of breast cancer awareness should be the focal point.
To read more about this visit Reuters online.
