Preoperative Therapy as a Model for Translational Research in Breast Cancer

Preoperative (sometimes called neoadjuvant or primary) treatment for breast cancer is well established as a treatment for locally advanced tumors (1). Early results, principally with chemotherapy, suggested that neoadjuvant chemotherapy could effectively cytoreduce bulky tumors, rendering operable women with extensive primary tumors, including inflammatory breast cancer. On the basis of these results, and the growing literature on adjuvant chemotherapy, neoadjuvant chemotherapy became the standard of care for locally advanced breast cancer.