De-escalating Treatment for Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

Abstract

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a heterogenous disease. The mainstay of its management is surgery, and lumpectomy with or without radiation therapy (RT) or mastectomy are standard options. Endocrine therapy may be given to maximize risk reduction. With standard treatment, the long-term breast cancer-specific survival is excellent and exceeds 95%. Currently, management strategies are based on standard clinicopathological features. Genomic tools to predict local recurrence have been developed, and prospective studies to evaluate their impact on RT recommendations and outcomes are ongoing. Because of concerns regarding overtreatment of DCIS, there has been much enthusiasm for de-escalating locoregional therapy. RT halves the risk of local recurrence but does not affect survival, and its omission can be considered in low-risk groups. Active surveillance for low-risk DCIS is being evaluated in 4 prospective trials. The concern regarding these trials is whether the selected “low-risk” cases are truly at low risk, and what threshold of recurrence is considered acceptable. Additionally, it is unclear whether patients will be willing to trade short outpatient procedures for more biopsies, more imaging, and possibly increased concern about recurrence. The clinical relevance and the safety of this approach are yet to be determined.