Good News for Women with Stage One Breast Cancer
Stage one breast cancer describes invasive breast cancer (cancer cells are breaking through to or invading normal surrounding breast tissue) in which the tumor measures up to 2 cm and no lymph nodes are involved. Microscopic invasion is possible in this stage. In microscopic invasion, the cancer cells have just started to invade the tissue outside the lining of the duct or lobule, but the invading cancer cells can’t measure more than 1 mm.
The stage of the breast cancer can help you and your doctor understand your prognosis (the most likely outcome of the disease) and make decisions about treatment, along with all of the other results in your pathology report. Breast cancer stage is based on four characteristics:
* The size of the cancer
* Whether the cancer is invasive or non-invasive
* Whether cancer is in the lymph nodes
* Whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body beyond the breast
Stage is usually expressed as a number on a scale of zero through four — with stage zero describing non invasive cancers that remain within their original location and stage four describing invasive cancers that have spread outside the breast to other parts of the body. Stage one breast cancer along with two A, two B, and three A are considered “early-stage” breast cancer and refer to cancers that may have spread to nearby lymph nodes but not too distant parts of the body. Doctors may use another staging system known as TNM to describe the cancer. This system is based on the size of the tumor (T), lymph node involvement (N), and whether the cancer has spread, or metastasized, to other parts of the body (M).
Treatment of early stage breast cancer often involves more than one approach. Surgery is usually the first step. Breast cancer on stage one can be treated with either breast conserving surgery (lumpectomy, partial mastectomy) or modified radical mastectomy. Radiation therapy is usually given after breast conserving surgery. Breast reconstruction can be done either at the same time as surgery or later. Since breast cancer in this stage is still in its very early stages, women has a high chance of survival on a 5 year survival rate average because women respond very well at this stage with a series or combination of treatments . According to the statistical analysis of patients in the United States, the survival rate is 98% for women with stage one breast cancer.
Stage One Breast Cancer Survival Rates
