Local Recurrence after Treatment of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: A Comprehensive Overview

Patients with DCIS have an excellent long-term prognosis with a 10-year breast cancer-specific survival around 98%. Treatment has the goal to prevent the development of an invasive breast cancer and to minimize the risk for a second breast cancer event, and published studies have shown a substantial decrease in invasive local recurrence rates over time. Approximately 50% of the local recurrences after BCS for a primary DCIS are invasive and 8.5% of them node-positive. Experiencing an ipsilateral invasive recurrence after a primary DCIS does significantly increase the risk of breast cancer death, while this is not seen after a DCIS recurrence. Radical surgery remains crucial to minimize the risk of local recurrence, and adjuvant radiotherapy reduces the risk of local recurrence by at least 50%. At recurrence, a repeat-BCS should be considered as it offers a good local control in properly selected patients and an overall and breast cancer-specific survival comparable to that seen after mastectomy.