Cancer Of The Breast And The Menopause

Abstract

The dramatic but rare regression of a verified case of breast cancer in the absence of adequate, accepted, or conventional treatment has been observed and documented by clinicians over the course of many years. In my practice limited to diseases of the breast, over the past 25 years I have observed 12 patients with a unique and unusual clinical course valid enough to be regarded as spontaneous regression of breast cancer. These 12 patients, with clinically confirmed breast cancer, had temporary arrest or partial remission of their disease in the absence of complete or adequate treatment. In most of these cases, spontaneous regression could not be equated ultimately with permanent cure. Three of these case histories are summarized, and patient characteristics of pertinent clinical interest in the remaining case histories are presented and discussed. Despite widespread doubt and skepticism, there is ample clinical evidence to confirm the fact that spontaneous regression of breast cancer is a rare phenomenon but is real and does occur. The author presents several clinical characteristics of breast cancer, which are for the most part generally unexplained. 1) Advanced breast cancer is often a widely disseminated disease, yet it almost never metastasizes below the elbow or below the knee. 2) Metastatic breast cancer can and often does involve every organ in the body except one. This one structure is the largest in the human body and consists of the voluntary or striated muscles. There are over 400 striated muscles on each side of the body, and although they may be affected by direct invasion of cancer, they are never affected by metastatic dissemination. 3) Breast cancer is a common disease throughout the animal kingdom, frequently affecting the dog, cat, mouse, rat, and most other mammals. However, the cow with its large and highly specialized mammary gland is the only exception to this prevalent cancer. Breast cancer of epithelial origin has rarely, if ever, been found in the udder of a cow, and these domestic animals have been very carefully examined over a long period of time.