[Primary treatment of locally advanced breast cancer with neoadjuvant chemotherapy]

Since February 1991, in Health Region 3, patients with recently diagnosed Stage III breast cancer have been treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This treatment includes 16 weeks of chemotherapy prior to local treatment, usually consisting of mastectomy and postoperative radiotherapy. 48 patients have so far undergone this treatment. The majority (43 patients) received chemotherapy consisting of weekly doses of Adriamycin. Even with a high average age the therapy has been well tolerated. 60% of the patients partially responded to the therapy, an additional 15% experienced minimal response. At this point it would be premature to evaluate the long term effect of the therapy. It is very interesting, however, that at this stage we have not observed any local recidive in patients who showed primary response to chemotherapy. Following primary treatment of this group of patients, local recidive is usually a frequent and early observation.