| Breast
cancer is still one of the biggest problems for healt scheduling and for
the community. It is important to take account of the fact that nowdays 40%of tumors in the breast are diagnosed with negative axillary lymph nodes, with 80%of diagnoses referring to breast-limited disease. The disease-free survival rate(DFS)at 10 years post-diagnosis is 60% for women having negative lymph nodes, while for women with positive lymph nodes the same 10-year rate is 30%. Following 30 years of clinical trials, our own data safely indicate that multiple drugs yield higher response rates than does a single drug, and that multiple therapeutic cycles are more effective than a single cycle. It is probable that within the next ten years the major impact on the evolution of neoplastic disease in the breast will be supplied by developments in endocrine therapy. The use of the hormonal weapon is already about to be sharpened up and shed of those side effects that are linked with it, i.e. the onset of insensible clonus, thromboembolic disordes and endometrial cancer. Data analysis confirms the fact that the adjuvant therapy, even with the improvements of recent years, is "out of proportion" to the cause. |