NEW CONCEPTS IN THE TREATMENT OF BREAST-CANCER USING HIGH-DOSE CHEMOTHERAPY

High-dose chemotherapy is now frequently used for the treatment of pri mary and metastatic breast cancer. Two recent randomized trials have d emonstrated that this treatment approach can result in extended diseas e-free and overall survival for patients with metastatic disease. Howe ver, treatment results have demonstrated that long term remissions fro m these treatments raise complex questions about traditional models of chemotherapy principles. A detailed analysis of the principles underl ying high-dose therapy is presented in the context of principles of do se-response, the inverse rule and the total tumor cell kill hypotheses .