Take Action:
Help Millions of Women Have Access to a DCIS Test That Prevents Overtreatment and Unnecessary Radiation
A Medicare contractor has proposed ending coverage for this evidence-based test, despite published peer-reviewed research and support from many breast cancer specialists. If finalized on July 17, 2026, the decision could affect millions of Medicare beneficiaries and may influence private insurers to deny coverage as well, limiting access to personalized treatment decisions for women across the country.
I have been advocating for DCIS patients since 2010, when I was diagnosed, terrified, and told by a physician, “Don’t be stupid Donna… at least do 3 weeks of radiation.”
I said no. I trusted my instincts. And years later, when the PreludeDx team tested my original 2010 biopsy tissue, the science confirmed what my gut already knew: my DCISion Score was 0.8 out of 10, with a 9% 10-year recurrence risk and no expected benefit from radiation therapy.
That test — the biomarker test called DCISionRT — vindicated my decision. More importantly, it represents exactly the kind of personalized, evidence-based information that tens of thousands of women diagnosed with DCIS every year deserve to have access to.
And now, Medicare may take it away.
What’s Happening Right Now
A story just broke in NBC News that should alarm every woman, every oncologist, every patient advocate in this country.
A private company advising the agency that oversees Medicare has recommended against reimbursing for breast cancer biomarker tests, sparking an immediate and furious backlash from cancer specialists. If this recommendation moves forward, millions of women in 28 states could lose Medicare coverage for these critical tests.
This is not a bureaucratic footnote. This is a direct attack on personalized medicine and informed consent for DCIS patients.
Why Biomarker Tests Matter So Much, Especially for DCIS
Back in 2018, I wrote one of the first patient advocacy pieces championing the DCISionRT biomarker test. You can read it here. At the time, I wrote:
“Hopefully thousands of women today can be spared the frightening feeling that comes with uncertainty and can instead have more personalized information to support their decisions for active surveillance if they are low-risk rather than be continually pressured towards a one-size-fits-all highly aggressive treatment protocol.”
That was eight years ago. The science has only gotten stronger.
There are now two validated biomarker tests available specifically for DCIS, DCISionRT and the Oncotype DX DCIS Score. DCIS 411 has a full resource page explaining both tests here.
These tests analyze gene expression within DCIS tissue to provide genuinely personalized risk assessments. Research on DCISionRT found that in a multi-site study of 474 patients, 53% of women with low or intermediate-grade DCIS were reclassified as Elevated Risk, while 30% of those with high-grade DCIS were reclassified as Low Risk. Traditional pathology alone simply cannot capture this biological nuance.
For a woman facing a DCIS diagnosis, already overwhelmed, already frightened, already being pressured toward aggressive treatment, having access to this test can mean the difference between unnecessary radiation, mastectomy, and/or hormone-blocking drugs, and a confident, evidence-backed decision to pursue active surveillance.
When clinical pathology says, “high grade” but your biology says, “low risk,” you deserve to know that. When the system says “treat aggressively” but your genomic data says otherwise, you deserve that information.
Removing Medicare coverage for these tests doesn’t protect patients. It blindfolds them.
The Bigger Picture: Overdiagnosis, Overtreatment, and the Desperate Need for Personalized Tools
Here is what makes this particularly heartbreaking: the DCIS community has been fighting the overtreatment problem for years.
More than 60,000 women are diagnosed with DCIS annually in the United States. Studies have shown that 97% of women historically ended up receiving aggressive treatments, mastectomies, radiation, hormone therapy, driven by fear, uncertainty, and a one-size-fits-all medical culture that treats every DCIS diagnosis as an emergency.
Biomarker tests were, finally, a tool to push back against that tide. They gave women and their doctors scientific evidence to support individualized decisions. They helped low-risk patients avoid treatments that would not benefit them. They helped higher-risk patients understand the real stakes and make genuinely informed choices.
Taking away Medicare coverage for DCISionRT actively contributes to the overtreatment epidemic by stripping women of a tool that could free them from it.
What You Can Do Right Now
Patient voices matter enormously in Medicare coverage determinations. Here is how you can act today:
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- Sign the petition. A Change.org petition calling on Medicare to reverse this recommendation is live now. Please sign it and share it with every woman you know: Stop Medicare’s Proposed Breast Cancer Policy, It’s Dangerous. Women Will Pay the Price.
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- Share the NBC News story with your networks, your doctors, your legislators: Read the full NBC News report here.
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- Contact your representatives. Call or write your U.S. Senators and House members. Tell them that Medicare coverage for breast cancer biomarker tests must be protected.
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- Share your story. If you have used a DCIS biomarker test, if it changed your treatment decision, gave you peace of mind, or helped you avoid an unnecessary procedure, tell that story publicly. Patient narratives change policy.
The Science Is There. The Need Is Real. Now We Must Advocate for Access.
In 2018, I wrote that there is no price tag for peace of mind. I still believe that.
These tests exist. They work. Doctors trust them. Patients need them. The only question now is whether the insurance bureaucracy will allow women to access them, or whether millions of Medicare patients will be left making one of the most consequential health decisions of their lives without the tools they deserve.
I spent years being the lone voice in online forums saying: get the test, understand your biology, don’t be rushed into treatment you may not need. Now NBC News is saying it. Cancer specialists across the country are saying it. It’s time for Medicare to hear us.
Please sign the petition. Please share this post. Please advocate alongside us.
Donna Pinto is the founder of DCIS 411, a public service website dedicated to educating and empowering women diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. She has been a patient advocate, researcher, and collaborator on DCIS research publications since her own diagnosis in 2010. Learn more about DCIS biomarker tests at dcis411.com/dcis-bio-marker-tests.