Figure 1From: The diagnosis and management of pre-invasive breast disease: Pathological diagnosis – problems with existing classificationsThe multistep development of invasive breast cancer. (a) This model is often used to explain how breast cancer develops. The way in which the model is drawn suggests that epithelial hyperplasia is a direct precursor to atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). (b) There is no proof that epithelial hyperplasia is a direct precursor of ADH and DCIS, and that there is a continuum of alterations leading from epithelial hyperplasia to DCIS.Back to article page