Metro Creative

People recently diagnosed with breast cancer or those who know someone in such a position can learn these common terms to make their journey to recovery a little easier to navigate.

Ductal carcinoma in situ: Many terms related to breast cancer can be scary, but DCIS is among the more welcoming words a doctor may utter. DCIS is a noninvasive form of breast cancer that doctors may characterize as “stage 0.” Breast cancers identified as DCIS are very early stage and highly treatable.

Invasive ductal carcinoma: Susan G. Komen, an organization dedicated to raising breast cancer awareness, notes that IDC is a form of the disease that begins in the milk ducts but has spread into surrounding breast tissue and possibly into the lymph nodes or other parts of the body.

Ki-67 Rate: This is a common way to measure proliferation rate. The more cells the Ki-67 antibody attaches to in a given tissue sample, the more likely the tumor cells will grow and divide rapidly.