Breast-Conserving Therapy is as Effective as Mastectomy in DCIS
A retrospective study from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program Database;
1. DCIS, Ductal Carcinoma in Situ, is often considered a precancer that has the potential to become an invasive cancer over time.
2. The two treatments for this condition have been;
a. Total mastectomy sometimes followed by tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor for women who are not considered candidates for radiation therapy
b. Breast conserving surgery followed by irradiation with or without tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor.
3. The data base, for this study, included 27,728 women who underwent total mastectomy and 25,240 women who underwent breast conserving surgery.
Results;
A. No difference in breast cancer specific survival between the total mastectomy and breast-conserving surgeries ( 98.6% and 99.5% respectively)
B. Factors that may help determine prognosis include race, hormone receptor status, and tumor grade
Better results were seen in:
---Caucasian vs African-American women
---Estrogen receptor (ER-positve)/progesterone receptor (PR-positive) versus ER-positive/ PR-negative and ER-negative/ PR-negative.
---Lower versus higher tumor grade.