THE PRESENT studies were made on a group of 50 patients studied in collaboration with the Branch of Endocrinology of the National Cancer Institute over a period of approximately two years.
Nearly all of the patients were undertaken for the palliation of metastatic breast carcinoma. They were accepted only after oophorectomy in the premenopausal women who had reached their maximum benefit from palliative x-rays and endocrine therapy. In addition, a number of patients had had chemotherapy for their metastatic disease. It became evident rather early in the series that a beneficial response from oophorectomy or endocrine therapy was a rather uncertain indicator of the outcome of the pituitary ablation. Although many patients who had previously responded favorably to the treatment also responded favorably to pituitary ablation, others did not; and, it was soon found that certain patients who had not responded favorably before would respond with remission to pituitary ablation.