Early Stage Breast Cancer Detection
Detection of an early-stage breast cancer differs from "early detection" of breast cancer. Discovering an early-stage breast cancer is fortunate. Early discovery of a small but late-stage breast cancer makes less of a difference. Breast cancer screening programs are intended to locate cancers that are smaller than the ones found by chance. A smaller cancer is not necessarily an earlier cancer. Although size is definitely one of the important factors, it is not the only important factor.
Far more meaningful is whether the cancer has metastasized. If a cancer has sent out daughter cells to other parts of the body such as the lung, bones, or liver, it is a late-stage cancer no matter how small it is. No matter the size, a cancer that contains rapidly dividing cells is a later cancer than one that has cells that are not actively dividing.
