I Editorial I TREATMENT OF METASTATIC BREAST CANCER PATIENTS: WHAT IS THESTANDARD

The clinical course for breast cancer patients varies considerably. Some patients can be cured with minimal operation, while others quickly develop systemic dissemination and die over a few months. Some patients, even with metastatic disease, live long after systemic treatment, while no benefit from chemotherapy is observed in other subsets of patients. The most important goal of treating breast cancer patients is to stop metastasis at source, i.e. eradicate all cancer cells before they metastasize to distant organs. The principal strategy to achieve this goal has been 'detect and surgically excise the tumor as early as possible'. Based on this strategy, screening of breast cancer was successfully introduced for women aged 50 to 69 (1). Surgical operation has long been over valued for its role in controlling primary breast cancer since the radical mastectomy was first reported (2). Extent of primary breast surgery has been reduced from radical mastectomy t