Klin Onkol 2000; 13(2): 58-60.
Summary: This article summarizes our experience with the treatment of inoperable or metastatic breast cancer in 148 patients: 54 of them were in stage IIIA, 45 in stage IIIB and 49 in stage IV. The treatment of advanced breast cancer is a serious problem because many patients come in the advanced stage and because of dissemination of small primary tumours. Although the treatment is mostly performed only with a palliative aim, it is possible to achieve long-term survival in a considerable number of patients. However there are many unclear questions remaining in the choice of the optimal systemic treatment (hormonal or cytostatic). In our set of patients, patients with a positive response to hormonal treatment survived significantly longer in comparison with patients without this response. Other prognostic factors in our set were the site of metastases in soft tissue or in the skeleton, relapse in more than two years from the time of diagnosis and the presence of hormonal receptors in the cancer cells. We consider hormonal treatment to be the most important modality in the treatment of advanced breast cancer.
