Women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) may later develop invasive breast cancer. A groundbreaking study suggests that women with DCIS later suffering from invasive breast cancer have greater threat of dying from breast cancer than those who do not develop invasive disease. The study findings apparently have great significance in the health-space.
The study focused on analyzing the long-term effects of treatments to prevent invasive recurrence after lumpectomy. The long-term outcomes of patients with localized DCIS enrolled in two large randomized trials were thoroughly evaluated. The B-17 trial matched lumpectomy alone to lumpectomy plus radiation therapy in women with DCIS. The B-24 trial, on the other hand, compared lumpectomy and radiation in combination with either tamoxifen or placebo.
After 15 years, the outcomes in both trials were examined which also contained the overall and breast cancer-specific survival as well as survival after development of invasive breast cancer in the same, or ipsilateral, breast. It was pointed out that the development of invasive ipsilateral breast cancer may be linked with death rates. The mortality dates appeared statistically greater than those in women who did not develop an invasive ipsilateral breast cancer.
Irene Wapnir, M.D., of Stanford University School of Medicine, and colleagues claimed that recurrence of DCIS was not related to higher mortality. Those subjected to radiation treatment after lumpectomy supposedly had declined threat of ipsilateral invasive breast cancer as compared to lumpectomy alone. Treatment with radiation and tamoxifen apparently decreased the chances of death only when compared to radiation.
From all patients in the trials, the 15-year cumulative incidence of death from breast cancer allegedly was 4.7 percent or less for all treatment groups. Some of these events were seemingly attributed to new invasive contralateral breast cancers. In conclusion, it was ascertained that regardless of treatment, women with DCIS have better overall prognosis, despite persistent risks of breast cancer in the same or contralateral breast.
The study was published online March 11 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.