Summary:

Breast cancer patients with DCIS have a lot of confusion about just what this diagnosis means. This short video explains DCIS, how it's different from invasive breast cancer and how it's commonly treated.  This is not intended as medical advice. Please talk to your doctor before beginning any new health practice.

Transcript:

Hello everyone.  I’m Dr. Lisa Schwartz and this is Cancer Straight Talk where you get cancer information from a cancer doctor.  Today I’m going to be talking about ductal carcinoma in situ or DCIS which is noninvasive breast cancer. 

Now all of those words might be completely new to you so let me explain.  In general, breast cancer can be divided into two types:  invasive and noninvasive.  Noninvasive breast cancer has not spread beyond the breast ducts.  It has not broken through the lining of the breast ducts to get into the tissue of the breast, the lymph nodes, or anywhere else in the body. 

Breast cancer treatment often involves a targeted therapy called Herceptin. In this video I explain which breast cancer patients get Herceptin and what it is. This information is not intended as medical advice. Talk with your doctor before beginning any new health practice.

Transcript: 

Hello!  I’m Dr. Lisa Schwartz and this is Cancer Straight Talk where you get cancer information from a cancer doctor.  Today I’m going to be talking about a drug that is used very commonly in breast cancer called Herceptin.  The generic name is trastuzumab but since Herceptin is so much easier to say, that’s what I’m going to use today.

To understand what Herceptin is and how it treats breast cancer we need to first talk about proteins that appear on the surface of breast cancer cells.  There is a protein found on breast cancer cells that acts as a receptor called Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2 (HER2).  We test all breast cancers to see...