title: Curing Metastatic Breast Cancer.
abstract: Metastatic breast cancer is generally considered incurable, and this colors doctor-patient interactions for patients with metastatic disease. Although true for most patients, there appear to be important exceptions, instances where long-term disease-free survival occurs. Although these instances are few in number, they suggest the possibility of cure. How will we move toward cure for a much larger population of patients with metastatic disease? This article outlines a potential research agenda that might move us toward that distant goal.
authors.affiliation: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA gsledge@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: George W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Sledge
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care