Eliminating Breast Cancer Surgery with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy?

The key to success may be selection criteria and adequate percutaneous sampling.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) and anti-HER2 therapy have been shown to eradicate invasive breast cancer and sometimes in situ carcinoma in up to 60% of patients with triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer. This finding begs the question of whether surgery is necessary for all patients, particularly when they receive adjuvant radiotherapy, an approach used for some stages of cervical, prostate, and lung cancers. However, current best breast imaging is neither sensitive nor specific enough to predict complete pathologic complete response (pCR).

Investigators have now conducted a multicenter study of 164 German patients with breast cancer to determine the ability of biopsy to predict pCR by smaller gauge core cutting (69.5%) or vacuum…

Reviewing Author

Henry Mark Kuerer, MD, PhD, FACS

Disclosures

Speaker's BureauPhysicians’ Education Resource, LLC

RoyaltiesMcGraw-Hill Professional; UpToDate, Inc.

Editorial BoardsAnnals of Surgical Oncology

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesAmerican Society of Breast Surgeons (Chair, Publications Committee)