[Chemotherapy in metastasing breast cancer--is it beneficial?]

Carcinoma of the breast is the most common type of cancer among women in Denmark (3,000 new cases a year). About half of the patients will at some time develop metastases. Treatment of extended disease is controversial. Public discussion has focused on whether it is desirable to treat these patients with chemotherapy or not. This case story describes four cases with long term survival (nine, ten, 14, 19 years after début of metastases). This underlines that it is possible within the existing types of treatment to achieve both extended survival and acceptable life quality. The doctor's dilemma is that he does not know whom treatment helps. We conclude that treatment should be offered to all patients. This will be of benefit to the whole group.