Long-term survival results favor chemotherapy before surgery for locally advanced bre...( y after lumpectomy. Patients with...),Health

Patients with inflammatory breast disease were not considered candidates for breast-conserving therapy, regardless of clinical response to chemotherapy. When this group was discounted statistically, of the 49 remaining patients, 22 (45 percent) had successful breast conservation, Cance said.

"Our results demonstrate that patients with locally advanced breast cancer can achieve outstanding control of disease and long-term survival by undergoing a dose- and time-intensive regimen of neoadjuvant chemotherapy," he said.

"These data provide evidence that breast conservation can reasonably be accomplished in up to 45 percent of patients with non-inflammatory locally advanced breast cancer," Cance said. "Furthermore, the tumor response to chemotherapy can help identify the subgroup of patients with a more favorable long-term prognosis. Those patients who have clinical downstaging of their tumors and are candidates for breast conserving therapy have the best long-term outcome."

He added that patients who had mastectomy - while at higher risk of relapse as well as development of new tumors in the other breast - still have five-year survival rates of more than 50 percent.

"Thus, dose-intense and time-intense neoadjuvant therapy should be standard care for patients with locally advanced breast cancer," he said.

'"/>

Contact: Leslie lang
LLANG@MED.UNC.EDU
919-843-9687
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
26-Apr-2002