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Dahlia M. Sataloff, MD
Philadelphia, Pa

Arch Surg. 2001;136:358.

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

Despite accepted prognostic factors, breast cancer can behave capriciously in selected patients, with some who should do well showing recurrence, and others with poor prognoses surviving disease free. The article by John H. Morton, MD, titled "Some Thoughts on Breast Cancer" provides a personal historic view on the changes in accepted management of this disease throughout the decades, and raises the question of whether our standard treatments for breast cancer make any difference in the outcome.

In the early part of the 20th century, breast cancer was thought to spread in an organized, anatomic fashion. Consequently, experts believed that larger resections would halt the spread of disease and improve the chance for cure. These concepts were supported dogmatically until the 1970s when the old theories about the biological behavior of cancer were questioned. A new theory held that breast cancer had the ability to spread even . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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