What is lobular carcinoma in-situ (LCIS)?
A. Despite its frightening name, lobular carcinoma in-situ is not a “true” cancer. It does not have the ability to invade tissue or spread beyond the breast at this point in time. Even when closely monitored for many years, cancer does not develop in the majority of cases. LCIS originates in the breast lobules, the part of the breast which produces milk. LCIS does not show up on the mammogram, and does not produce a lump; therefore, it is usually only discovered incidentally when a biopsy has been done for some other reason, such as to evaluate a palpable lump or abnormal mammogram. Previous studies have demonstrated that when LCIS is present in one part of the breast, it frequently can be found in multiple spots in the breast. LCIS is sometimes confused with ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS), which is another type of non-invasive breast cancer; however, the two behave quite differently. When a patient with LCIS develops invasive lobular cancer, it usually does not develop at the site of
