From: healthline.com
When chemotherapy is the first step in your breast cancer treatment, it’s called neoadjuvant therapy. Neoadjuvant therapiesTrusted Source are systemic therapies that come before a main treatment.
Because there are several kinds of breast cancer, not everyone receives the same treatments in the same order. While neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a good option for some people with breast cancer, it’s not the best choice for everyone.
This article discusses neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer, when and how it’s used, and what you can expect from the treatment.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is given before your main treatment. In breast cancer, the main treatment is likely to be a mastectomy or a breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy). Other possible treatments are hormone therapy and targeted therapies.
Neoadjuvant vs. adjuvant chemotherapy
Neoadjuvant therapy: Breast cancer typically requires more than one type of treatment. The primary treatment is usually surgery. When you have chemotherapy first, it’s called neoadjuvant therapy because it comes before the main treatment. The goal is to shrink the tumor. In some cases, this means you can have a less extensive surgery.
Adjuvant therapy: If you have chemotherapy after surgery, it’s called adjuvant therapy. This means it adds to the main treatment. The goal is to destroy the remaining cancer cells and reduce the risk of recurrence. Adjuvant systemic therapy is a common treatment for early-stage breast cancer.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer may be beneficial if you have:
- locally advanced breast cancer with lymph node involvement
- a large tumor that may complicate surgery
- other health concerns that increase the risks of immediate surgery
- inflammatory breast cancer
- triple-negative breast cancer
- HER2-positive breast cancer
There’s a lot to consider, so the type of treatment is a case-by-case decision. To figure out whether you’re a good candidate, your oncology team will consider any other health concerns you may have.
In addition to a clinical examination, tests that can help inform the decision include:
These tests help determine key factors such as:
- tumor type
- grade (aggressiveness)
- whether the cancer has invaded your lymphatic or vascular system
- whether the cancer has spread to distant organs/sites (if it has, then surgery is not an option)
In addition to helping doctors decide the order of treatments, this information can help them determine which chemotherapy drugs are most likely to be effective.
Barbara Jacoby is an award winning blogger that has contributed her writings to multiple online publications that have touched readers worldwide.