Trastuzumab combined with paclitaxel after doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide improves outcomes among women with surgically removed HER2-positive breast cancer. (ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT00004067 and NCT00005970.)

Preoperative chemotherapy is as effective as postoperative chemotherapy, permits more lumpectomies, is appropriate for the treatment of certain patients with stages I and II disease, and can be used to study breast cancer biology. Tumor response to preoperative chemotherapy correlates with outcome and could be a surrogate for evaluating the effect of chemotherapy on micrometastases; however, knowledge of such a response provided little prognostic information beyond that which resulted from postoperative therapy.

Preoperative therapy reduced the size of most breast tumors and decreased the incidence of positive nodes. The greatest increase in lumpectomy after preoperative therapy occurred in women with tumors > or = 5 cm, since women with tumors less than 5 cm were already lumpectomy candidates. Preoperative therapy should be considered for the initial management of breast tumors judged too large for lumpectomy.

SummaryBackground-Sentinel node surgery was designed to minimize side effects of lymph node surgery but still offer outcomes equivalent to axillary dissection. The aims of NSABP Protocol B-32 were to determine whether sentinel node resection in breast cancer patients achieves the same survival and regional control as axillary dissection but with fewer side effects.

The addition of four cycles of preoperative docetaxel after four cycles of preoperative AC significantly increased clinical and pathologic response rates for operable breast cancer.

The addition of preoperative or postoperative T after preoperative AC did not significantly affect OS, slightly improved DFS, and decreased the incidence of local recurrences. The sample size of this study was not sufficient to yield significance for the moderate DFS improvement. Concurrent use of tamoxifen may have limited the impact of adding T.

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Administering trastuzumab with paclitaxel after AC increases incidence of CHF and lesser CD. Potential cardiotoxicity should be carefully considered when discussing benefits and risks of this therapy.