The Nation - News from May 20, 1987

Aggressive chemotherapy is saving the lives of some women with advanced breast cancer who would almost certainly die if given standard treatment, researchers said. Several studies presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Atlanta demonstrate that drugs can save many, though still a minority of, women whose breast tumors are not spotted until they have spread to the chest wall. Typically, patients with this stage of breast cancer are treated first with radiation therapy.