Scientists reveal breakthrough… and tell why thousands of women with breast cancer may soon be told they don’t need ANY treatment

Roughly 56,000 British women each year are given the terrifying news that they have breast cancer.

It’s a life-changing diagnosis not least because, almost always, it is followed by invasive biopsies, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone treatments that, in younger women, induce the menopause.

But could all that be set to change? Indeed, could many thousands of women told they have the disease not need a jot of treatment whatsoever?

The provocative answer, according to a growing number of the world’s leading specialists, is yes. The results of a major trial, announced last week, showed it was perfectly safe – perhaps even a better option – to simply ‘watch and wait’ with certain breast cancers, known as ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS.

No surgery, no medication – just a check-up twice a year. DCIS are tiny tumours, confined to the milk ducts in the breasts, which usually cause no symptoms and cannot be felt.

They account for about a quarter of all breast cancer diagnoses and most are discovered only during routine mammograms (breast X-rays).

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