High-Risk Breast Cancer, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1989 Diagnosis

The most meaningful reward to clinicians and researchers is the absence of recurrent malignancy in their patients. While in some patients the disease will be cured by resection alone, in other similarly staged cases the disease will recur despite adequate loco regional and systemic therapies. Hence, risk assessment is a complex issue with many related or unrelated prognostic factors determining outcome. The purpose of this volume is to review some of the most relevant prognostic factors of newly diagnosed breast cancer, focusing on fea­ tures determining the magnitude of risk. The ultimate value of establishing the significance of each prognostic factor in a given patient will be the resulting ability to plan individu­ alized therapies for patients at different risk of recurrence at the time of diagnosis. To secure the maximum benefit for high-risk patients, while avoiding undue toxicity in those with low-risk lesions, a well-integrated analysis of all known prognostic factors will be essential in the early postdiagnos­ tic period. In addition to well-established staging criteria such as axillary nodes, tumor size, receptors, scanning and radiographic examinations, the more sophisticated labora­ tory techniques, as discussed by several authors herein, will playa crucial role in risk assessment. Most of them, - ploidy determination, oncogenes, tumor markers, monoclonal anti­ bodies, growth factors, etc. -are presently available in only a minority of treatment centers.

High-Risk Breast Cancer: Definition of the Risk.- Epidemiology.- Breast Cancer Risk and Chemoprevention.- Oncogenes.- Genetic Aspects of Human Breast Cancer.- Significance of Oncogenes in Breast Cancer: Review.- Flow Cytometry.- Measurement of DNA Content of Archival Material as a Guide to Prognosis.- Flow Cytometry in the Management of Breast Cancer.- The Role of Fine-Needle Aspiration in Determining the Risk of Breast Cancer.- Tumor Kinetics.- Measurements of Cellular Proliferation and DNA in Breast Carcinoma.- Tumor Kinetics in Experimental Mammary Carcinoma.- Receptors.- Hormone Receptors and Risk in Breast Cancer.- Overview of the Prognostic and Clinical Correlates of Steroid Hormone Receptors in Human Breast Cancer.- Pathology.- Identification of Risk Factors by Conventional Pathologic and Some Ancillary Techniques in Women with Breast Cancer.- Mammography.- The Role of Mammographic Screening in the Control of Breast Cancer: An Overview.- The Role of Screening Mammography in Determining Risk in Breast Lesions.- Immunology.- The Role of Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies in Assessing Risk in Breast Cancer.- A Review of the Role of Immune Reactants in Patients with High-Risk Breast Carcinoma.- General.- Growth Regulation of Breast Cancer.- In Vitro Predictive Sensitivity Testing in the Therapeutic Assessment of Breast Cancer.- The Role of Chromosome Analysis in the Investigation of Breast Cancer.