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Alaska Angel,
One aspect of chemotherapy use which I believe to be inadequately addressed is its usefulness in the hormone positive population. Data from the Early Breast Cancer Trialists Collaborative Group clearly shows that hormone positive bc is a disease with slow but consistent recurrence rates out to 20 and 25 years. I think the onconlogy community relies on chemo as a panacea that eliminates recurrence risk for everyone, when that is just not so. Because of this heavy reliance on this particular form of treatment, I think the endocrine aspects of the disease are not being investigagted or treated in a manner that optomizes treatment outcomes for this group. There is a serious need to question the overuse of cytotoxic drugs for bc treatment and start focusing on what drives different forms of the disease. With the attitude that "chemo cures everything," a lot of necessary research is not getting done. Just MO.
Hopeful
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