Questioning Medicine

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2828218DCIS is a non-invasive form of breast cancer, meaning the abnormal cells are contained within the milk ducts. For years, the standard treatment has been surgery, often followed by radiation and/or hormone therapy - the same treatments used for invasive breast cancer. But is this aggressive approach always necessary for low-risk DCIS?(Transition Music - Short and subtle - 2 seconds) Host: That's the question the COMET trial, or Comparing an Operation to Monitoring, With or Without Endocrine Therapy for Low-Risk DCIS, set out to answer. This large, randomized trial enrolled nearly 1000 women with newly diagnosed, low-risk DCIS across 100 centers in the US between 2017 and 2023. Participants were randomly assigned to either guideline-concordant care, meaning surgery with or without radiation, or active monitoring, involving regular check-ups with imaging and physical exams, reserving surgery only if the DCIS progressed to invasive cancer. The study fo