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Presumptive palliative irradiation in metastatic carcinoma of the breast
Author(s) -
Bagshaw Malcolm A.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(197112)28:6<1692::aid-cncr2820280658>3.0.co;2-e
Subject(s) - medicine , metastatic breast cancer , radiation therapy , breast cancer , palliative care , disease , cancer , palliative treatment , surgery , oncology , intensive care medicine , nursing
Sixty per cent of the 550 patients with breast cancer referred to the Division of Radiation Therapy, Stanford University, during the past 10 years have been referred for the treatment of metastatic sites. Although the sites of involvement and the treatment regimens used were too variable for meaningful statistical analysis, a review of the techniques employed revealed the evolution of a pattern of treatment which might be termed presumptive palliation. In this approach, it is advocated that individual sites of metastatic involvement be treated aggressively with the best equipment and therapeutic technology available with the goal of sterilizing the metastatic focus at the time of its earliest detection. By using this approach, troublesome or even catastrophic foci of disease may be eliminated permitting more effective palliation of the individual sites than may be accomplished by waiting until the metastases cause severe pain, loss of structural integrity, or severe malfunction.