Overview
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is treatment given before surgery. In breast cancer, it is often used to shrink the tumor, improve the chance of breast-conserving surgery, and reduce the disease burden in the axillary lymph nodes. Its value is well established in triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-positive disease, where tumors are more likely to respond dramatically. However, in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, the benefit has been less certain because these tumors are often less sensitive to chemotherapy.
This study used a large U.S. national cancer registry to compare survival outcomes in women with node-positive, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy versus those who went directly to surgery. The analysis also examined which patients were more likely to achieve nodal pathologic complete response, meaning no cancer was found in the lymph nodes at surgery after preoperative treatment.
