# Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score

Source: https://onco.cc/drugs/oncotype-dx-dcis/  
OnCo record `oncotype-dx-dcis` (Test). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A tissue test for ductal carcinoma in situ, the earliest non-invasive stage of breast cancer, that estimates the chance of it coming back in the same breast to help decide whether radiotherapy is needed.

## Summary

Exact Sciences describes the test as "A tumor-tissue early-stage DCIS breast cancer test that shows how likely breast cancer will return and possible radiation benefit". In the ECOG E5194 cohort of 327 women treated by excision without radiotherapy, the ten-year risks of an ipsilateral breast event were 10.6, 26.7 and 25.9 per cent for low, intermediate and high scores (Solin 2013). Medicare's Palmetto MolDX policy L36912 covers it only when DCIS is found on biopsy with no invasive disease, the patient is a candidate for breast-conserving surgery, the result will be used to choose between surgery alone and surgery with radiotherapy, and no mastectomy is received or planned.

## Fields

- Kind: Test
- Status: established
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: Oncotype DX DCIS; DCIS Score
- Tags: test; rna
- Brand: Oncotype DX DCIS Score
- Modality: Gene-expression prognostic assay (12-gene RT-PCR, ductal carcinoma in situ)
- Mechanism: Reverse-transcription PCR on the Oncotype DX platform measures seven cancer-related genes and five reference genes in the removed DCIS tissue and reports a score for the ten-year risk of a local recurrence.

## Notes

- What a result means: a low score means a lower chance of the DCIS or an invasive cancer coming back in the same breast after surgery alone, which some women use to decide against radiotherapy; it does not apply after mastectomy.

## Sources

- Exact Sciences: Oncotype DX DCIS Score: https://www.exactsciences.com/cancer-testing/oncotype-dx-dcis-score-breast-cancer
- CMS LCD L36912: MolDX: Oncotype DX Breast Cancer for DCIS: https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/lcd.aspx?lcdid=36912

## Connected records

- drugs: [Oncotype DX](https://onco.cc/drugs/oncotype-dx/)
- cancers: [Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)](https://onco.cc/cancers/ductal-carcinoma-in-situ/)
- technologies: [Gene-expression prognostic assays](https://onco.cc/technologies/gene-expression-prognostic-assays/), [RNA sequencing & expression profiling](https://onco.cc/technologies/rna-seq/)
- companies: [Exact Sciences (Abbott)](https://onco.cc/companies/exact-sciences/)
- key papers: [A multigene expression assay to predict local recurrence risk for ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-solin-oncotype-dcis-score-jnci-2013/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/oncotype-dx-dcis.json