Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-obligate precursor of invasive breast cancer and a frequent mammographic finding requiring treatment. Up to 25% of DCIS can recur and half of recurrences are invasive, but there are no reliable biomarkers for recurrence. We hypothesised that copy number aberrations could predict likelihood of recurrence. We analysed a cohort of pure DCIS cases treated only with wide local excision for genome-wide copy number and loss of heterozygosity using Affymetrix OncoScan MIP arrays. Cases included those without recurrence within 7 years (n = 25) and with recurrence between 1 and 5 years after diagnosis (n = 15). Pure DCIS were broadly similar in copy number changes compared with invasive breast cancer, with the consistent exception of a greater frequency of ERBB2 amplification in DCIS. There were no significant differences in age or ER status between the cases with a recurrence vs those without. Overall, the DCIS cases with recurrence had more copy number events than the DCIS without recurrence. The increased copy number appeared non-random with several genomic regions showing an increase in frequency in recurrent cases, including 20q gain, ERBB2 amplification and 15q loss. Copy number changes may provide prognostic information for DCIS recurrence, but validation in additional cohorts is required. Modern Pathology (2015Pathology ( ) 28, 1174Pathology ( -1184 doi:10.1038/modpathol.2015 published online 19 June 2015 Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a proliferation of malignant cells within breast ducts without invasion through the basement membrane. A number of lines of evidence demonstrate that DCIS is a non-obligate precursor of invasive breast cancer, including the natural history of untreated DCIS, 1 the high risk of ipsilateral invasive breast cancer after a diagnosis of DCIS and the common clonal genetic events found in DCIS and synchronous or recurrent invasive breast cancer. 2 Prior to population-based screening mammography, DCIS was an unusual finding comprising only 3-5% of all breast neoplasms. Currently,~20% of cases of screen-detected breast neoplasia are DCIS. 3 Standard treatment has become wide local excision of DCIS with or without adjuvant radiotherapy. 4 Recent clinical trials have found that~25% of DCIS treated with local excision only will recur within 15 years, with the greatest risk of recurrence in the first 5 years. 5 Approximately half of the recurrences will be invasive carcinoma, requiring more extensive treatment, and with a possible decrease in disease-specific survival. 6 Radiotherapy reduces the recurrence rate by about 50%, so despite the fact that only small a small proportion of patients will benefit, many clinicians recommend radiotherapy because of the implications of invasive recurrence. The most commonly used predictive models to estimate the recurrence risk with or without radiotherapy include DCIS grade, tumour size, width