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Chemotherapy Before Breast Cancer Surgery
The current standard treatment for early breast cancer involves surgery to remove the tumor followed by chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. However, numerous studies from various countries have been published—starting in the 1980s—on whether administering chemotherapy before surgery in such patients is more effective. A recent review of these studies shows that preoperative chemotherapy is safe.
The literature review, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (April 18), looked at 14 studies (from countries including the United States, France, Japan and others) that compared preoperative versus postoperative chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer. There was no difference in survival between the two groups, and researchers say preoperative chemotherapy has two advantages: it makes more breast-conserving surgeries possible because it can shrink tumors and it decreases the risk of damage to heart muscle and of serious infections—although it increases the rate of local recurrence.
