Breast Calcifications Scrutinized

"You've got to treat all of them," says Dr. Etta Pisano, director of the Biomedical Research Imaging Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I don't call these precancers. They're cancer. They're just early, noninvasive cancers. How many people are going to want to watch it? Why would you take that risk?"

Besides, the earlier the cancer is found, the less aggressive the treatment is likely to be, she says.

Pisano says she also has some problems with the methodology of the Archives of Internal Medicine study. "I believe there are some cancers that may go away. I don't believe it's 20 percent."

"Once we make the diagnosis, it's always time to act," says Dr. Clara Mesonero, pathologist at Cape Cod Hospital.

That action could include having part of the breast removed through lumpectomy, a whole breast removal through mastectomy, as well as treatment with chemotherapy, radiation and hormones.

For many women faced with evidence of cancer in their breasts, not taking action is unthinkable, despite their reservations.

Sally Clemence, 52, of Falmouth wasn't thrilled about having two lumpectomies and undergoing radiation after doctors diagnosed her with ductal carcinoma in situ this past fall.

But, she says, "the day I went for my first treatment was the 20th anniversary of my mom's passing away from breast cancer. I'm going to celebrate the technology that didn't exist when my mom was diagnosed. I have two kids in their 20s, and I want to stick around for them. We're nipping it in the bud."

Bevis also is thankful she had the treatments for DCIS, painful and tiring though they were. She had four surgeries to save her breast and was sick an entire summer from chemotherapy, spending the last round in bed.

She celebrated five years of being cancer-free in 2008 and got her master's degree in marriage and family therapy. She and her husband, Bob, will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary in August.

For her doctors to be able to find malignancies associated with calcifications as tiny as grains of salt was life-saving, Bevis says. "I had no idea I was at risk."