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memo - Magazine of European Medical Oncology
Published in: memo - Magazine of European Medical Oncology 3/2018

Open Access 01-09-2018 | review

Current concepts and future directions in neoadjuvant chemotherapy of breast cancer

Authors: Rupert Bartsch, Elisabeth Bergen, Arik Galid

Published in: memo - Magazine of European Medical Oncology | Issue 3/2018

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Summary

Preoperative administration of chemotherapy is a widespread treatment approach in early stage breast cancer whenever chemotherapy is indicated in principle. In addition, neoadjuvant treatment is today regarded as the preferred way of delivering systemic therapy in triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer. While preoperative chemotherapy allows for disease downstaging and increases breast conservation rates, achieving pathologic complete remission (pCR) is usually regarded as the most pertinent aim as pCR predicts for improved long-term outcome in high-risk breast cancer subtypes. A multitude of clinical trials therefore have focused on strategies to increase pCR rates. This short review summarizes outcomes of selected studies investigating the addition of further chemotherapeutic drugs or biologically targeted agents to standard regimens and provides an overview of novel strategies currently under clinical evaluation.
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Metadata
Title
Current concepts and future directions in neoadjuvant chemotherapy of breast cancer
Authors
Rupert Bartsch
Elisabeth Bergen
Arik Galid
Publication date
01-09-2018
Publisher
Springer Vienna
Published in
memo - Magazine of European Medical Oncology / Issue 3/2018
Print ISSN: 1865-5041
Electronic ISSN: 1865-5076
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12254-018-0421-1

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