Could ultrasound-guided cryoablation be used to manage "low-risk" DCIS?: a feasibility case report

Management of ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS) is controversial as there is concern that the majority of diagnoses will never become life threatening such that a subset of patients may be overtreated with surgery. Active surveillance is an alternative proposed management strategy; however, we cannot accurately predict which DCIS will never progress to invasive disease potentially undertreating a large proportion of women. We present a case of a 58-year-old female with DCIS successfully treated with only ultrasound-guided cryoablation without resection. A follow-up needle biopsy of the ablation zone was benign and imaging follow-up has demonstrated no evidence of disease at 14-months. Cryoablation of DCIS is feasible with appropriate patient selection and warrants further investigation as an alternative to surgical resection or active surveillance.