Possible respect of patient quality of life--without reducing survival expectancy--in breast cancer treatment.

The treatment of breast cancer by some doctors in all countries and all in some does not concern itself with quality of life considerations. Partial breast cancer surgery is possible in cases of neither voluminous nor central tumors, and surgery can also be partial after pre-surgical chemotherapy reduction. The apoptotic test for cytostatic choice should assist in obviating toxicities which are minor for the physician, i.e., alopecia, cardiac lesion, etc, but which are major for the patient. Cytostatics will be useless in treatment if they are not apoptogenic. Hormonal treatment may, when there are estrogen receptors involved, be advantageously combined with chemotherapy. In estrogen receptors absence, growth factor receptors should be considered, as there is a possible indication of somatostatin analogs (instead of hormones, which are useless). Quality of life is mainly determined by the partial character of the surgery, hence by the volume and localization of the tumor. Cancer screening allows diagnosis when tumors are smaller as opposed to those which are the object of spontaneous diagnosis. We even propose screening of dysplasias and their biological treatment between 40 and 50 years--hormonal if the specific cells carry hormone receptors, and based on somatostatin analogs if they carry growth factor receptors.