Transsphenoidal Hypophysectomy in Metastatic Cancer of the Breast

Abstract

Cancer of the breast is the most frequently occurring of all types of cancer; about 4% of all women will be stricken by this serious disorder (Haagensen¹⁵). If patients are treated in the early stages the prognosis is good, but unfortunately many do not come to treatment before there is a large palpable tumor with axillary metastases. Taking Haagensen's material from New York as a whole, 30% of patients were free from recurrence after 5 years, whereas among those patients in whom no axillary metastases had been found at operation the corresponding figure was 90%. Thus unfortunately there are many patients who cannot be cured of their cancer of the breast. These patients often raise great therapeutic problems when metastases occur, especially bone metastases, which frequently give rise to considerable pain and may cause the patient to be bedfast for months or even years, despite the fact that their