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Neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer has no benefits in routine clinical practice
Our study, with a median follow-up of 11 years, confirms that, for patients with primary
operable non-metastatic breast cancer, neoadjuvant chemotherapy failed to improve overall
survival. Then added value of neoadjuvant strategy for patient's clinical benefit remains
uncertain without demonstrating improvement regarding health related quality of life.
Furthermore, we found no difference in the final mastectomy rate between the treatment
groups. Of note, it is important to underline that these results are based on an historical
cohort. Such bias is inherent to long-term endpoint studies. Never mind our results underline
that clinicians should pay caution against the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in an
unselected population. Then we suggest that the use of neoadjuvant therapy in clinical
practice should be carefully discussed before implementation to take into accounts the
benefits and risks for the patient. Quality of life could be the cornerstone of this discussion.
Bibliographic Reference:
Le Ray I et al.: "Neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer has no benefits on overall survival or
on the mastectomy rate in routine clinical practice. A population-based study with a median
follow-up of 11years using propensity score matching", Eur J Cancer. 2012 Apr 16. [Epub
ahead of print
Franck Bonnetain
Biostatistics and Epidemiology Unit, Centre Georges Francois Leclerc (CGFL), Dijon, France
file://C:Documents and SettingsutenteDesktopEdit_Bonnetain.htm 01/06/2012