[Breast cancer: a glimmer of hope?]

The current curability of breast cancer is reviewed. The four different stages of the disease are considered: operable breast cancer, primarily inoperable cases, local recurrences and advanced, metastatic disease. Despite progress in recent years, the latter three stages of the disease must still be regarded as incurable. Furthermore, it is still too early to provide a definite assessment of the relative merits of adjuvant chemotherapy in operable breast cancer. In view of the wellknown heterogeneity of the disease, a longer follow-up will be required for all the studies carried out in the last decade. However, currently available data suggest that adjuvant chemotherapy is increasing overall survival after radical surgery, at any rate in some subsets of patients.