1.   As the hub of the milk ducts, it always harbors cancer cells.

2.   But Dr. Miller said the tumor, like most breast cancers, appeared to have originated in a milk duct.

3.   Doctors then thread a tiny catheter into the milk duct, wash the duct with saline solution and extract cells.

4.   It may spread to underarm nodes, but it starts within the breast tissue, usually in milk ducts.

5.   The most curable cancers, called ductal carcinomas in situ, are those that are still contained within the milk duct in which they arose.

6.   The nipple is taken because milk ducts run up in the nipple and can hide tumor tissue, but almost all the rest of the breast skin is left.

7.   The only women excluded from this recommendation were those with noninvasive cancers of the milk ducts, for whom mastectomy is almost always a cure.

8.   The study involves ductal carcinoma in situ, abnormal cell growths inside milk ducts.

9.   This kind of cancer is confined within the milk ducts and has not yet infected other tissues or organs.

10.   Vicini said his findings applied only to women with ductal carcinoma in situ, a very early form of breast cancer that is still confined within the milk ducts.