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In this issue of the Archives (p 877), Dr Puga and his colleagues have made a clear presentation of data on therapeutic oophorectomy performed for disseminated carcinoma of the breast in the years 1960 to 1964. The results are of interest because they oppose the conventional thinking that the disease-free interval, age of the patient, and tumor histology have important implications in the likelihood of response.
During the years since these patients were treated, several innovations in management have emerged for the patient with advanced cancer of the breast. These advances have followed two basic strategies: nonhormonal chemotherapy, and additive or ablative endocrine manipulation based on tumor receptors. Both are demonstrating success.
Progress in nonhormonal chemotherapy in patients with cancer of the breast is one of the most exciting of all recent medical advances. After numerous trials with individual agents, most medical oncologists are now using multiple drug approaches. The