Benefit of tamoxifen in estrogen receptor positive DCIS of the breast

Allred and colleagues recently published, in Journal of Clinical Oncology, a retrospective analysis which illustrates the benefits of tamoxifen (TAM) in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) according to the estrogen receptor (ER) status (1). The analysis included 41% of the original sample of the NSABP24 trial (2). TAM reduced the hazard of relapse by 50% at 10 years of follow-up among 76% patients resulting ER+ in this trial. No benefit was observed in ER-patients with DCIS. The strength of this analysis was the centralisation of receptor analysis, in the majority of cases, according to standard immunohistochemical analysis.