Category: Latest Research
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May 5, 2025
Study Finds No Clinical Benefit in Re-Excising Narrow Margins After Lumpectomy for ER+ Postmenopausal DCIS
A phase 3 clinical trial (NSABP B-35 (NCT00053898)) has found that margin widths of 1 mm vs 2 mm after lumpectomy in postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor–positive (ER+) DCIS do not result in clinically meaningful differences in rates of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR). The findings were presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons conference by Dr. Irene Wapnir of Stanford Medicine. The trial included over 3,100 postmenopausal women with ER+ DCIS, all of whom received whole-breast irradiation and 5 years of hormone therapy (tamoxifen or anastrozole) after lumpectomy. Looking at 10-year rates of IBTR, the study found that rates were similar regardless of whether surgical margins…
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April 15, 2025
Personalized Care for DCIS: New Genetic Score Offers Hope
While most cases of DCIS stay harmless, some can eventually turn into invasive cancer, which is harder to treat. Right now, it’s difficult for doctors to predict which DCIS cases are likely to progress, often leading to overtreatment with surgery or radiation for many women. A new study published in Cell Death Discovery aimed to find a better way to predict which DCIS cases might turn aggressive and threaten a patient’s health. In the study, researchers looked very closely at thousands of individual breast cancer cells from patients at different stages of disease. They identified nine important genes that behave differently in invasive versus non-invasive cells. Using these…
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April 12, 2025
New Gene Test Helps Personalize Radiation and Hormone Treatment Decisions for DCIS Patients
Traditionally, doctors use physical and medical factors to decide if DCIS patients need radiation or hormone therapy following surgery. But this method is not always accurate. A study presented at the 42nd Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference showed a 7-gene biosignature test could more accurately identify DCIS patients who would actually benefit from radiation and/or hormone therapy after breast-conserving surgery, compared to traditional clinicopathologic risk criteria. Researchers analyzed tissue samples from 926 DCIS patients. They found that women labeled “low risk” by traditional methods included a substantial number of women who, per the 7-gene test, were actually at higher risk and did benefit from radiation. Other women who were correctly…
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February 24, 2025
Study Suggests Some DCIS Patients May Safely Avoid Surgery with Personalized Hormone Treatment
A new study published last week in Breast Cancer Research has found that certain types of DCIS may respond well to hormone therapy before surgery, and some patients might even be able to avoid surgery altogether in the future. The study explored how genomic features influence the response of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) DCIS to pre-surgical aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy—specifically, letrozole—in postmenopausal women. Researchers gave letrozole, a hormone-blocking pill, to postmenopausal women with ER+ DCIS for 6 months before surgery, and then looked at how the tumors changed using imaging, lab tests, and genetic analysis of the tumors. The study used genetic testing to predict which tumors would respond, helping tailor treatment to each…
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December 28, 2024
Expanding Treatment Options for Low-Risk DCIS: First COMET Results are Released
The first results of the U.S-based Comparing an Operation to Monitoring, with or without Endocrine Therapy (COMET) trial, a phase III randomized clinical trial comparing different management strategies for low-risk DCIS, were released earlier this month. The findings were published in JAMA and JAMA Oncology and were presented at the 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The key takeaway from the study is that women with low-risk DCIS who underwent active monitoring instead of surgery were no more likely to develop invasive breast cancer in the affected breast after two years. The findings represent a first step toward a safe…
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December 16, 2024
New Study Maps Molecular Clues Behind Which DCIS Cases Progress to Invasive Breast Cancer
Due to improved screening, DCIS now makes up about one-quarter of all breast cancer diagnoses. However, most cases of DCIS never progress to invasive breast cancer (IBC), meaning that many women undergo unnecessary aggressive treatments like surgery, radiation, and hormone therapy. Molecular predictors of which DCIS cases will progress remain poorly understood. To better understand which DCIS cases are likely to progress to IBC, researchers studied nearly 200 breast tissue samples from DCIS patients who either stayed healthy or later developed invasive cancer. They analyzed the samples’ genes, DNA changes, and other molecular patterns. The results were published earlier this month in Breast Cancer Research. The study concluded that DCIS…