Is cervical adenocarcinoma in situ cancer?

Many people are very afraid of cancer. Some patients' first reaction when seeing cervical carcinoma in situ is that there is a lesion inside the cervix. In fact, patients with carcinoma in situ do not need to worry, and carcinoma in situ can still be cured. In daily life, only doctors probably know the difference between carcinoma in situ and cervical cancer. The general public rarely knows the definition of carcinoma in situ. So is cervical carcinoma in situ equivalent to cancer?

Is cervical adenocarcinoma in situ cancer?

In clinical medicine, cervical carcinoma in situ is generally classified as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia is divided into three grades, including moderate to severe cervical intestinal metaplasia and cervical carcinoma in situ. Cervical carcinoma in situ, also known as intraepithelial carcinoma, is a disease in which the epithelial cell layer undergoes optical regression, the cells are significantly atypical, the nuclei are large and darkly stained, the chromatin is unevenly distributed, and there are nuclear division phases. However, the disease is limited to the upper epidermis, the basement membrane is not penetrated, and there is no infiltration of the interstitial tissue. The atypical cells can enter the cervical glandular ducts in the transition zone area along the opening of the cervical glandular cavity, causing the original columnar cells of the glandular ducts to be replaced by double-layered atypical squamous cells. However, the basement membrane of the glandular duct remains intact, which is called cervical carcinoma in situ invading the glandular duct. Cervical adenocarcinoma in situ is not an invasive carcinoma but a type of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

To be precise, cervical carcinoma in situ is a precancerous lesion. If carcinoma in situ occurs in the cervix, it can be said that tumor cells appear in the cervical epithelial tissue. If discovered early, the tumor cells of this type of carcinoma in situ will not infect the normal cells of other tissues, nor will they migrate, and the patient will not have any external symptoms. Therefore, cervical carcinoma in situ is not a true cancer and will not seriously endanger life.

In the early stages of cervical carcinoma in situ, tumor cells will not migrate, so patients do not need to worry too much. However, after discovery, patients are advised to undergo surgery immediately to remove the tumor cell site. If these carcinoma in situ cells cannot disappear on their own, they will easily enter the early invasion stage, that is, they will begin to invade the dermis. In this case, it will quickly develop into real cancer, so the carcinoma in situ must be treated in time.