Cancer of the Breast
The outlook on this age-old problem was dominated by considerations formulated more than half a century ago, but ROW the outlook has become more critical and hormonal treatment is only justified in cases which are demonstrably unsuitable for surgery or radiotherapy.
Abstract
UNTIL RECENTLY our outlook on this age-old problem was dominated by considerations formulated more than half a century ago. We have thought of breast cancer as a disease of autonomous growth and uniform progress, in which early diagnosis and prompt treatment by a standard unalterable technique were the sole and sufficient keys to success. But ROW we have become more critical. We recognize that our method of staging, with a demonstrable error of about 30 per cent, is so inaccurate as to be misleading, and that in many 'early' cases the disease has already transgressed the borderline of curability; we recognize that even in the best clinics the real cure rate is no better than 50 per cent of all cases, and we recognize that radiotherapy, despite much research and vast outlays, can offer results which are little, if at all, better. Fortunately there is a ray of hope for the future in the new approach to the preblern by endecrine measures. At the present time, however, hormonal treatment is only justified in cases which are demonstrably unsuitable fer surgery or radiotherapy, and much remains to be done by increased attention to early diagnosis and through treatment along orthodox lines.