Breast Cancer Research

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Re-evaluating early breast neoplasia

Sharon Moulis1,2 and Dennis C Sgroi1,2*

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Molecular Pathology Research Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02129, USA

2 Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Cancer Research and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02129, USA

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Breast Cancer Research 2008, 10:302 doi:10.1186/bcr1853

Published: 8 February 2008

Abstract

Historically, histomorphological and epidemiological data suggested that atypical ductal hyperplasia and ductal carcinoma in situ are the earliest recognizable neoplastic stages of breast cancer progression. Over the past several years, detailed high-throughput molecular genetic, gene expression and epigenetic analyses have enhanced our understanding of these early neoplastic lesions and have re-shaped our view of human breast cancer progression to include multiple distinct pathways of evolution.