Patients with advanced breast cancer require extensive care and intensive use of medical and other resources, but, until this study, there were no reliable estimates of the number of women actually living with
metastatic disease in the United States, the authors said.
Dr Richard Clarkson, from the University's European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute, said: "Despite great improvements in therapy of early stage breast cancer, the current therapeutic options for patients with late stage
metastatic disease are limited.
The routes by which
metastatic disease may reach the pituitary include meningeal spread, direct extension, and hematogenous proliferation (1,6).
Our study showed that routine screening not only improves the patient's quality of life by stopping
metastatic disease but also decreases the burden of care for this advanced disease that must be provided by the health care system," Ms.
In contrast to the situation with the assessment of primary disease and axillary involvement, a number of studies clearly demonstrate that PET-CT is the most accurate imaging modality now available for the staging of metastatic breast disease, with a number of studies finding substantially better results for the detection of
metastatic disease than conventional imaging methods [6].
Treatment of
metastatic disease with hormone therapy will depend on the presence of hormone receptors, site of the metastasis, rapidity of disease progression, and quality of life.
Orbital
metastatic disease may result in proptosis or ecchymosis.
Editor's reply: Originally, this sentence read: "Approximately 30% of ER-negative and as many as 75% of ER-positive patients will relapse with
metastatic disease and die within 10 years.
NASDAQ NM / NASDAQ Europe: VITA), a leading developer of orthopedic biomaterials, has announced clinical data showing that company's CORTOSS(TM) Synthetic Cortical Bone Void Filler provides stability and rapid pain relief in a high percentage of patients with fractured vertebra caused by osteoporosis and
metastatic disease.
1] The current rate for developing melanoma in the United States is estimated at 1 in 87, and occult
metastatic disease is diagnosed in 15% of patients at the time of primary tumor presentation.
Patients with cancer usually die not as a result of their primary malignancy but of the
metastatic disease process that ultimately develops.
Because most of these cancers also require estrogen for growth, postsurgical treatment to seek out and destroy
metastatic disease (minute secondary tumors spawned by the original cancer) usually involves endorcrine therapy--starving these cancers of estrogen or providing a drug that counteracts the effects of estrogen.