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PROGNOSIS AND EARLY MANAGEMENT IN BREAST CANCER
Author(s) -
Hunt P. S.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1970.tb50169.x
Subject(s) - breast cancer , medicine , worry , mastectomy , axillary lymph nodes , disease , radical mastectomy , modified radical mastectomy , cancer , lymph node , oncology , psychiatry , anxiety
Two questions worry therapists in breast cancer management today: (a) is any treatment of value? (b) If treatment is indicated, what treatment is the most effective? The controversy about treatment revolves about the idea that the natural history of breast cancer, or any other cancer, is biologically predetermined, and because the basic defect is in host immune response, prognosis is uninfluenced by treatment. Statistical data have been applied to support this notion, but recent evidence suggesting that the rate of survival is improving because of early diagnosis reinforces the opinion that treatment is often of value in breast cancer. The degree of lymph node involvement dominates the estimate of prognosis in breast cancer. Evidence is accumulating that when more than a few lower axillary nodes are involved, the disease is incurable. Any proposed management of primary breast cancer should Include mastectomy and excision of these lower three nodes. A case is made for a modified radical mastectomy to remove all axillary nodes, in order to obtain adequate documentation for future research and provide histological material to give adequate prognosis.