Juliette Murray | Search PubMed

PubMed2006

Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy models.

Neoadjuvant therapy is therapy administered before surgical intervention and while the tumor remains in the breast. It may be given to treat large, locally advanced tumors, with the aim of shrinking them and thus making their surgical excision either simply possible or less radical. Most neoadjuvant therapy is chemotherapy, but adjuvant endocrine therapy is increasingly used in hormone-sensitive tumors; for example, those responsive to tamoxifen. Repeat biopsies aimed at assessing response to treatment--for example, by examining estrogen receptor status or markers of proliferation in tumor tissue--may be taken during the course of adjuvant therapy. In this chapter, the essential protocols associated with designing neoadjuvant trials are described, methods of assessing response to neoadjuvant therapy are detailed, and various approaches to collecting appropriate clinical samples and their assessment are presented.

Biopsy↗

PubMed2005

Surgical issues surrounding use of aromatase inhibitors.

There are important surgical issues related to the use of the third generation aromatase inhibitors in both the neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings. Neoadjuvant hormone therapy is effective at downstaging tumours, particularly large tumours initially thought to be inoperable or requiring mastectomy. Randomised trials have shown that the newer aromatase inhibitors letrozole and anastrozole increase the numbers of women who are suitable for breast-conservation compared with tamoxifen, and that letrozole is superior to tamoxifen in terms of clinical response. Aromatase inhibitors are most effective in ER-rich tumours and are clinically and biologically effective in both HER2 positive and negative tumours, whereas HER2 positive tumours show a level of resistance to tamoxifen. In neoadjuvant studies comparing aromatase inhibitors with tamoxifen, the duration of use has been 3-4 months, by which time any response is usually evident but longer treatment periods produce continued shrinkage and response. The re-excision rate following breast conservation surgery after neoadjuvant hormone therapy is favourable compared with the rates following immediate wide local excision. Local recurrence rates are acceptable in patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy and breast-conserving surgery providing post-operative radiotherapy is given. Adjuvant aromatase inhibitors, as well as having an effect on metastatic disease and survival, reduce local and regional recurrence.

Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal↗