Leading US breast surgeon Dr Laura Esserman is urging a rethink of the name and management of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

Dr Esserman, Director of the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the University of California, San Francisco, was in Australia recently to speak at the NBCF-sponsored Australian Breast Cancer Conference in Melbourne.

“DCIS is not cancer, so why are calling it cancer and always treating it like it is cancer?” Dr Esserman said.

In breast cancer, like other cancers, there are different types of the disease and not all types progress at the same rate.