Introduction: Selecting the appropriate treatment strategy for the individual patient with DCIS represents a major challenge to the surgeon treating breast cancer in the 1990's.
Cases and methods: In this study 48 "pure" DCIS patients, treated at Surgical Department of Genoa University, have been selected and divided into Van Nuys prognostic groups. New prognostic classification (Van Nuys) defines three distinct and easily recognizable groups, each of which has a different likelihood of local recurrence if treated with breast conservation.
Results: Our results confirm that the risk of local recurrence increases in close relation with prognostic classification groups and suggests that different forms of DCIS may require different treatments.