what stage of cancer do calcifications represent?

[bmerle]

I had 2 recent mammograms that revealed clusters of microcalcifications. After stereotactic biopsies, the right one came back DCIS, but the left one is invasive ductal cancer. What stage can I expect this cancer to be? I am having surgery later this week also.

[CCF-RN,MSN-JS]

Dear bemerle, The stage or expectation of a stage of cancer cannot be determined based on the above information.  Staging is based on tumor size, lymph node status and whether or not there is any evidence of cancer spread (metastasis).

[surgeon]

stage is based on many things: tumor size, lymph node involement, degrees of involvement, tumor beyond the breast and nodes, etc. There's no way to stage it at this point. However, when cancer is found because of microcalcifications, and there's no feelable lump, that's the beauty of mammograms: finding cancer at its earliest possible stage. Meaning cancer found by microcalcifications alone has an excellent chance of being stage 1.