Neoadjuvant Therapy

Some facts about neoadjuvant therapy:

• Neoadjuvant therapy is given before surgery to help shrink the cancer.
• Most commonly, treatment is given to your whole system (systemic therapy).
• Medicines used can include chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or immune therapy.
• Giving chemotherapy first immediately attacks cancer cells in the breast, lymph nodes, and anywhere else in the body.
• Anyone with a significant risk of cancer cells spreading beyond the breast needs effective systemic therapy. This includes women with a medium- to large-size cancer, those with significant lymph node involvement, or those with an aggressive type of cancer (such as inflammatory breast cancer).
• Neoadjuvant treatment lets the doctor see before the tumor has been removed if the particular treatment is actually shrinking the cancer.
  • You will probably have at least two cycles of treatment before your doctor evaluates how it is working.
  • Your doctor will measure the cancer's response to the treatment by regular physical examination and tests.
  • If the treatment shrinks the cancer, then your doctor will likely continue it. If the cancer remains the same size or grows, then your doctor will probably switch to another form of treatment.
• Chemotherapy before surgery offers the same survival rate as chemotherapy after surgery (for women with similar cancers).

• The main advantage of giving chemotherapy first is to avoid mastectomy, if possible, in women with relatively large-size cancers.