Treatment of residual neoplastic disease in solid tumours

Contemporary clinical research is actively engaged at the conquest of residual neoplastic disease. The preliminary results of combined treatment modalities for osteogenic sarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, breast cancer, malignant melanoma and Hodgkin's disease have shown a significant decrease in the incidence of distant metastases. In some neoplasias the decreased relapse rate was associated to improved survival. Since the problem of long-term carcinogenesis does exist, the use of prolonged adjuvant chemotherapy, at present moment, is best limited to patients at high risk of early relapse when treated only with local or local-regional modalities.