Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) has always been treated as cancer. It was virtually unknown before breast screening and now accounts for 25% of all ‘breast cancers’ detected. Over 51,000 women are diagnosed with DCIS each year in the USA over 7,000 in the UK and over 2,300 in the Netherlands. DCIS is usually treated by surgery, radiotherapy and endocrine therapies with the associated ongoing lifelong consequences of treatment. However, there is no evidence that treating low and intermediate grade DCIS saves lives and there is good evidence that women diagnosed with DCIS perceive their risk of dying from DCIS as the same as that of women with invasive disease. Read more..

Objectives of PRECISION The aim of PRECISION is to reduce the burden of overtreatment of DCIS through the development of novel tests that promote informed shared decision-making between patients and clinicians, without compromising the excellent outcomes for DCIS presently achieved.

To achieve this, the following project objectives will be addressed in seven workpackages

• Improve characterization of DCIS with more knowledge about the various types, resulting in less unnecessary treatment of non-invasive DCIS while making active surveillance available as a true treatment option
• Identify clinical and molecular markers for indolent DCIS, DCIS recurring as DCIS and for DCIS progressing into invasive breast cancer, to get a better understanding of DCIS.