Study raises doubts about early-stage breast cancer treatments

Aggressive interventions to treat the earliest stage of breast cancers have no effect on whether a woman is alive a decade later, according to a study that tracked more than 100,000 women.The findings, published Thursday in the journal JAMA Oncology, found that the overall risk of dying after being diagnosed with early cancer lesions, called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), was 3.3 percent over two decades, and that pursuing treatment beyond a lumpectomy did not affect survival. The findings add to concerns that the ability to detect these lesions through mammograms may be leading to unnecessary mastectomies.Read full article >>