Primary chemotherapy in operable breast cancer: effects on tumoral reduction, extent and complexity of surgical treatment

ABSTRACT

The authors present a trial primary chemotherapy <3 cycles of Doxorubicin (50 mg/m quadrate), 5-FU (500 mg/m quadrate) and Cyclophosphamide(500 mg/m quadrate)> given to 163 patients with operable breast cancer (clinical stages I, II, IIIa-UICC/AJC). It was possible, with this kind of treatment, to avoid mastectomy in 29 patients (40 per cent reduction in radicality). In 9 patients TART was performed instead of QUART, reducing the complexity of conservative surgery in 10 per cent. The response observed was inverselly proportional to tumor size. No patient presented severe side effects. The authors concluded that primary chemotherapy in operable breast cancer is feasible, providing tumoral reduction and modification in the extent of surgical procedures and creating a biological model to predict response to adjuvant chemotherapy.