Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective single-centre study was to examine the histopathological characteristics of breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) lesions in a cohort of Greek female patients and describe our experience regarding the clinical management of the disease.
Methods: The medical records from 1995 up to mid-2014 were scanned in order to trace DCIS cases. One hundred and seventy two patients (6.8% of all breast cancer cases) were diagnosed with pure DCIS and no invasive components; 32.0% underwent a second surgery, mainly due to first surgery positive margins.
Results: Age at first surgery ranged from 27 to 79 years (mean±SD 50±11) and median tumor size was 10mm (interquartile range/IQR7equals;12mm). Comedo necrosis (CN) was identified in 28.5% of the cases. The detection of CN was significantly associated with older age at diagnosis, larger tumor size and lower probability of highly differentiated tumors. Radiotherapy (RT) and hormonotherapy (HT) were applied to 44.8% and 63.4% of the patients, respectively.
Conclusions: We implemented international practices (surgery, radiotherapy and prophylactic hormonal therapy) to patients diagnosed with DCIS and have observed only two relapses. It is our belief that DCIS requires a multidisciplinary approach and patient-tailored therapy which can potentially contribute to minimization of the local recurrence risk.