Preliminary results of a medical study confirmed that surgical intervention may not benefit most women with ductal carcinoma in situ, a low-risk type of breast cancer, in support of the views of long-standing researchers.
Data presented to the San Antonio Breast Cancer Forum in the US state of Texas showed that women who were diagnosed with the disease and were followed up with frequent X-ray imaging did not have an increased risk of the disease developing into breast cancer during the following two years, compared to women who underwent surgery to remove cancer cells.
In ductal carcinoma in situ, often referred to as stage 0 of breast cancer, cancer cells are found inside the milk ducts but do not always turn into cancer quickly.
In the United States alone, DCIS affects more than 50,000 women every year. Almost all of them undergo surgical intervention, and a large number of them undergo mastectomies.
The study included 957 women with DCIS who were randomly distributed into two groups, one for surgery while the other underwent intensive surveillance.
After two years, the rate of rapidly spreading cancer in the surgery group was 5.9%, compared to 4.2% in the active control group, a difference that was not statistically significant, according to the study report.
“These results may be exciting for women patients, but it is clear that we need more long-term follow-up,” study leader Dr. Shelly Hwang of the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, North Carolina, said in a statement.
She continued: “If these results persist over time, most women with this type of low-risk disease will have the option of avoiding surgical treatment. This will bring about a complete change in how patients are cared for and thought about this disease.”