Title
Neoadyuvant chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced breast cancer
Other title
[La quimioterapia neoadyuvante en el tratamiento del cáncer de mama localmente avanzado]
Date Issued
01 January 2013
Access level
open access
Resource Type
review
Publisher(s)
Instituto Nacional de Salud
Abstract
In the first stages of cancer treatment, it was believed that it spreaded by continuity, so the first strategies to treat locally advanced breast cancer were highly aggressive, as well as mutilating. A deeper knowledge of the biology of cancer later resulted in important changes in its treatment, such as the use of neoadyuvant chemotherapy, administered prior to surgical treatment, as an alternative therapy. Initially described by the University of Milan, neoadyuvant chemotherapy has proven to be a better alternative than surgical treatment alone, adjuvant (or post-surgical) chemotherapy and radiotherapy alone or in combination with the previously mentioned techniques. Among its advantages we find an increase in the rate of breast-conserving surgeries and a reduction in the ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence rate. Furthermore, it facilitates breast cancer control and follow-up. On the other hand, its main disadvantage is that it cannot modify some of the disease's prognostic factors, such as the tumor breast relation, multicentric disease, scattered microcalcifications and the coexistence of medical elements which contraindicate radiation therapy. Currently, neoadyuvant chemotherapy is a pillar of the treatment of locally advanced breast cancer and is recommended in order to guarantee a more conservative evolution of the disease.
Start page
73
End page
78
Volume
30
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Oncología Radiología, Medicina nuclear, Imágenes médicas
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84882656305
PubMed ID
Source
Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Publica
ISSN of the container
17264634
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus