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Essence of Neoadjuvant Therapy

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Personalized Treatment of Breast Cancer

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Abstract

The neoadjuvant approach is widely used because it offers several clinical advantages. Importantly, it allows to monitor treatment response and to discontinue ineffective therapy in the event of disease progression, thus sparing the patients of potentially toxic and inadequate drugs. Moreover, the preoperative setting provides an in vivo model to explore the efficacy of new drugs and to investigate biomarkers that could help to identify patients with a higher chance of treatment benefit.

This chapter addresses the following topics: differences between adjuvant and neoadjuvant chemotherapy, aims of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, recommended treatment options in the preoperative setting, differences between pCR (pathological complete response) definitions and their associations with outcome, and prognosis in patients with residual disease. Moreover, the hot topic of surrogacy of pCR will be discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. German Breast Group, c/o GBG Forschungs GmbH, Neu-Isenburg, Martin-Behaim-Straße 12, 63263, Neu-Isenburg, Germany

    Jenny Furlanetto & Gunter von Minckwitz

Authors
  1. Jenny Furlanetto
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  2. Gunter von Minckwitz
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Correspondence to Gunter von Minckwitz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Breast Surgery Graduate Sc, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

    Masakazu Toi

  2. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Eric Winer

  3. Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

    John Benson

  4. University of Arkansas for Medical Scien, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

    Suzanne Klimberg

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Furlanetto, J., von Minckwitz, G. (2016). Essence of Neoadjuvant Therapy. In: Toi, M., Winer, E., Benson, J., Klimberg, S. (eds) Personalized Treatment of Breast Cancer. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55552-0_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55552-0_15

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