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Lt Col Flemings
When ductal carcinoma spreads into the surrounding breast tissue, the cancer is classified as invasive. This means that cancerous cells are no longer limited to the site of origin, but have spread into the breast tissue. This condition is called invasive ductal carcinoma, or IDC.
Maj Patel
IDC is the most commonly diagnosed type of breast cancer. In fact, 70 to 80 percent of breast cancer diagnoses are invasive ductal breast cancer. Given the frequency of this diagnosis, it’s important to note that invasive breast cancer is not the same as metastasis, a term that is often associated with breast cancer. Metastasis means that cancer cells have broken away from the primary tumor and spread to other organs in the body through the blood stream or the lymphatic system. However, invasive cancer can be limited to the breast only.