A world wide study including Europe and the US has begun to study and learn how to find a way to make a better estimate about a woman’s individual risk of developing cancer or not so that they can make the best decision for them. The research team plans to study tissue samples taken from women with DCIS during surgery in more detail than ever before. They’ll look at the characteristics of these samples, including their genetic make-up and the kinds of immune cells they contain.
The samples will come from the Netherlands, the UK and the US, which has been made possible through collaborations kick-started at a scientific conference and nurtured ever since.
And for all of these samples, they will have long-term follow-up information about the thousands of patients they hope to monitor. This information will include whether or not the patients’ DCIS came back after treatment, if they developed breast cancer, and if so, whether it spread.
It has the potential to allow women with DCIS to make a more informed choice for themselves.
Their ultimate goal is to combine this follow up information with the genetic data to find a particular change, or combination of changes, in the DNA that reliably reflects what happened to those patients.
Here is the link to the article that explains this study more in depth. It underscores how important its findings will be to those of us that have been diagnosed with DCIS.