[The adjuvant treatment of operable breast carcinoma. The current status and outlook]

Breast cancer represents one of the most frequent neoplasm: every year, in Italy, 25,000 new cases are diagnosed with more than 9,000 deaths. In Italy--and also in other countries--has been shown a broad variability in the use of diagnostic or therapeutic procedures caused by different hospitals' characteristics, patients' conditions and physicians' opinions. Among the different therapeutic options, post-surgical therapy, that extends the disease-free interval and survival, fills an important position in the cure of breast cancer in relation to the overview published on Lancet the 4th and the 11th January 1992. According to this overview, patients who had surgery for breast cancer benefitted by an adjuvant therapy--hormonal or cytotoxic--with a reduction of mortality between 15 and 20%. That means, in Italy, a reduction of one thousand deaths per year for this neoplasm. Particularly the effectiveness of hormonal treatment in postmenopausal patients (not only in the oestrogen receptor (ER) positive but in the ER poor too), of ovarian ablation and chemotherapy in premenopausal patients was confirmed. In node negative patients the present overview recommends the adjuvant treatment for the risk reduction in recurrence and mortality. Nevertheless important research implications persist about treatment and a better definition of high risk patients; therefore more patient should be included in the randomized clinical trial.