An aggressive multimodality approach to locally advanced carcinoma of the breast

In a series of patients who were not candidates for mastectomy because of locally advanced disease or distant metastases, or both, excellent local control was obtained by radiation therapy and systemic therapy in the form of oophorectomy-adrenalectomy and chemotherapy. Local control was obtained in 12 of 15 patients with metastatic disease by systemic therapy without radiation. The median disease-free survival time for patients with advanced Stage III carcinoma of the breast was significantly prolonged from 9.5 to 15 months by oophorectomy-adrenalectomy with chemotherapy, although there was no definable difference in the over-all survival period for the two groups.