March 4, 2025 - What if women diagnosed with low-risk breast cancer didn't get the standard lumpectomy, but instead closely monitored their health with twice-a-year mammograms?

A recent study showed that the two approaches led to similar rates of eventually developing invasive cancer after two years - 4.2% for those who chose "active surveillance" and 5.9% for standard treatment, typically surgery and radiation.

Both groups had similar rates of worry, anxiety, and depression during those two years.

More than 62,000 women in the United States are diagnosed yearly, via mammogram, with a noninvasive cancer of the cells lining the milk ducts. It's called "ductal carcinoma in situ," or DCIS, considered "stage zero," or the earliest form of breast cancer.

Typically, this is treated by surgery (a lumpectomy) followed by radiation. That's because doctors can't tell if DCIS will become invasive.