Picture of Health: Martina Navratilova diagnosed with breast cancer - Health care, wellness, food nutrition, exercise, medical research news from reporters who know the halls of the world's top hospital

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April 7, 2010

Martina Navratilova diagnosed with breast cancer

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with a non-invasive breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ. Known as DCIS, the condition affects the milk ducts and has about a 98 percent survival rate.

The malignancy can be detected by mammograms and accounts for 20 to 25 percent of all breast cancers diagnoses. But how and if to treat it remains controversial, particularly in light of renewed debate over the merits of breast cancer screening for women in their 40s.

Researchers with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force say it's unknown if DCIS progresses to an invasive cancer and argue that treatment of it may represent overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

A recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute recently called for more research on how to deal with DCIS, the LA Times explains.

AP photo

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Cancer, Women's health

Comments

This is so sad... she is a legend in tennis, I admire her very much. In fact, I start playing tennis because of her.

I hope she get's better

Posted by: Carmen Gonzalez | April 7, 2010 3:51 PM

Martina you are going to be awesome!!! I had the same thing and I am doing great!!!

Posted by: Arleen | April 8, 2010 12:41 AM

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About Picture of Health

Meredith Cohn has been a reporter since 1991, covering everything from politics and airlines to the environment and medicine. A runner since junior high and a particular eater for almost as long, she tries to keep up on health and fitness trends. Her aim is to bring you the latest news and information from the local and national medical and wellness communities.

Andrea K. Walker knows it’s weird to some people, but she has a fascination with fitness, diseases, medicine and other health-related topics. She subscribes to a variety of health and fitness magazines and becomes easily engrossed in the latest research in health and science. An exercise fanatic, she’s probably tried just about every fitness activity there is. Her favorites are running, yoga and kickboxing. So it is probably fitting that she has been assigned to cover the business of healthcare and to become a regular contributor to this blog. Andrea has been at The Sun for nearly 10 years, covering manufacturing, retail , airlines and small and minority business. She looks forward to telling readers about the latest health news.

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