Palliation of Osseous Metastases from Breast Carcinoma with Radioactive Phosphorus Alone and in Combination with Adrenalectomy

The palliation of metastasizing carcinoma of the breast presents a tremendous problem to the clinician. Several therapeutic approaches have been proposed. Just before the turn of the century Schinzinger (12) and Beatson (1) showed that oophorectomy produced beneficial effects in premenopausal patients. In 1939 Ulrich (13) and Loeser (8) demonstrated that testosterone was beneficial in the palliation of bone metastases, and in 1944 estrogen was first used in postmenopausal women with metastases from carcinoma of the breast. Irradiation is the treatment of choice for local recurrences of mammary cancer and for isolated bone metastases. In almost every case, however, the disease eventually becomes so widespread that external radiation therapy is no longer practical. In 1950, two of the present authors (4) reported on the use of radioactive phosphorus for the treatment of widespread osseous metastases from carcinoma of the breast. They obtained subjective relief of pain in approximately three-fourths of the p...