ABSTRACT
Between 22 November 1957 and 31 December 1963 a total of 932 women under the age of 70 years were admitted as in-patients for their first treatment of operable breast cancer (stage I and II). They were all registered for a prospective study of ‘prophylactic’ versus ‘therapeutic’ castration. Oophorectomy was performed as part of the primary treatment of 74 cases, ovarian irradiation in 590 cases. In the remaining 268 cases, castration was planned to be performed as soon as recurrences were diagnosed. In 448 of the cases a controlled clinical trial with random allocation was found to be ethically justified. All other treatment was kept as standardized as possible. In the primarily castrated groups, the time free of symptoms as well as total survival time was increased. This was found also in the postmenopausal groups. Oophorectomy was not found to be superior to ovarian irradiation as a method of primary castration.
