Breast Removal for Nothing?

What if it was all unnecessary — the surgery, the radiation, the drugs and, worst of all, the fear?  17 percent of D.C.I.S. cases identified by a commonly used needle biopsy may be misdiagnosed.

In 2006, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an influential breast cancer survivors' organization, released a study. 

While it is exceedingly difficult to determine the incidence of incorrect breast cancer diagnoses in the United States,
our consultants estimate that the error rate could be as high as 2% to 4%. If accurate, as many as 5,000 to 10,000
patients diagnosed with invasive or in-situ breast cancer each year may have been misdiagnosed and inappropriately
treated.. More than 90,000 people currently living with breast cancer may, in fact, be living (or dying)
with an incorrect diagnosis.

Those women who received a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (D.C.I.S.) or invasive breast cancer either did not have the disease or received incorrect treatment.

Advances in imaging technology over the past 30 years have meant that pathologists must render opinions on ever smaller breast lesions. Discerning the difference between benign lesions and early stage breast cancer is a particularly challenging area of pathology.
Diagnoses of D.C.I.S. have a history of confusion, differences of opinion, undertreatment, and overtreatment.

excerpted from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/health/20cancer.html and http://ww5.komen.org/uploadedFiles/Content_Binaries/PathologyWhitePaperB2.pdf.

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