This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Helmuth Vorherr, MD
University of New Mexico School of Medicine Albuquerque

JAMA. 1986;256(10):1292.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

In their recent JAMA article, Wertheimer et al¹ point out that "now" the concept has been accepted that breast cancer at the time of diagnosis is a systemic disease. However, this concept has been pioneered for more than three decades and breast cancer has therefore been treated conservatively with lumpectomy and radiotherapy; survival rates for up to 25 years are not different when conservative and radical treatments for breast cancer are compared (Figure).

Because no effective systemic treatment of breast cancer is available, emphasis must be placed on early diagnosis to increase the chance of survival. Mammography is now championed: "We must actively and aggressively screen asymptomatic women... radiation risk per se should no longer be a factor."¹ These efforts are commendable and physicians already order mammograms liberally or excessively because of fears of overlooking carcinoma and facing possible litigation.

Because the pathobiology of breast . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?