The Sequencing of Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy after Conservative Surgery for Early-Stage Breast Cancer

Abstract

This study suggests that for patients ar substantial risk for systemic metastases, it is preferable to give a 12-week course of chemotherapy followed by radiation therapy, rather than radiation therapy followed by chemotherapy.

Sequencing Surgery, Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy: Insights from a Mathematical Analysis

“…This result is consistent with [1], which shows the superiority of SCR over SRC for breast cancer patients receiving conservative surgery who are at substantial risk for systematic metastasis.…”

Unintended irradiation of internal mammary chain – Is that enough?

“…28 This effect, for example, would not diminish the action of chemotherapy in this region, since systemic treatment tends to be offered to the patients prior to radiotherapy. 29 On the assumption that the IMC incidental irradiation has a therapeutic impact, an interesting note is that precisely the group that received the higher doses to the IMC comprises mastectomy patients, regardless of whether an immediate reconstruction was performed or not. These patients usually have more advanced disease, which might translate into a higher risk of relapse at the IMC, 30 and would so benefit from this approach.…”

Preoperative Chemotherapy for Operable Breast Cancer Improves Surgical Outcomes in the Community Hospital Setting

“…The achievement of negative margins is also of importance because a higher number of operations to obtain negative margins results in a greater volume of tissue excised and a poorer cosmetic result [9,10,26,27]. In some series, the re-excision rate to obtain negative margins can be as high as 69% [28]. In the current study, patients in the AC group had a rate of close (Ͻ1 mm) or positive margins double that of those who underwent PC (46% versus 23%; p ϭ .04) ( Table 3).…”