The treatment of in situ breast cancer

Carcinoma in situ is the earliest histologically recognisable form of malignancy and as such provides an opportunity to treat the disease in a curative way. However, due to the comparative rarity of in situ breast carcinoma, there is no available information derived from controlled clinical trials. The two major variants, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) will be considered separately as the two conditions have divergent natural histories. DCIS is increasing in incidence since microcalcification, which is a frequent accompaniment, may be detected radiologically in the screening of asymptomatic women. The extent of microcalcification may not indicate the extent of disease. It has yet to be determined whether there is a difference in behaviour of the tumour forming and the asymptomatic types of DCIS. After a biopsy has shown DCIS there will be residual DCIS at the biopsy site in one-third of patients, and multifocal DCIS in another third. A coexistent infiltrating carcinoma may be present in up to 16%. Due to sampling problems areas of invasion may be missed. Axillary nodal metastases are found in only 1% of patients with histological DCIS. Radical surgery by total or modified mastectomy is almost curative, but 3% of patients will die of metastases. Taking results of uncontrolled trials, local relapse rates are as follows: excision alone 50%, wide excision 30%, wide excision plus radiotherapy 20%. Two prospective trials are underway run by the EORTC and NSABP in which patients with DCIS are treated by wide excision with or without external radiotherapy. LCIS is usually an incidental finding with a bilateral predisposition to subsequent infiltrating carcinomas. Curative procedures such as bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction may represent overtreatment. A systemic rather than local approach would seem appropriate and a trial is now underway run by the EORTC in which patients with histologically confirmed LCIS are randomised to observation alone or to receive tamoxifen 20 mg daily for 5 years. Cooperative studies will provide the way of acquiring important data on treatment regimens of both DCIS and LCIS. It is timely that treatment regimens for in situ carcinoma of the breast be examined by controlled clinical trials.