Dr. Mamounas on Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Eleftherios (Terry) P. Mamounas, MD, medical director of the Comprehensive Breast Program at the University of Florida Health Cancer Center, discusses the management of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for patients with breast cancer.

Data has been accumulated over the last several years on the effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on down-staging the disease, not only in the breast but in the axilla. There are clinical trials demonstrating that neoadjuvant chemotherapy downstages the axillary nodes so it can confer positive nodes to negative nodes. Now physicians can offer sentinel lymph node biopsies, which can potentially turn patients away from having a dissection and reduce the risk of lymphedema and other morbidities.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy not only reduces the disease burden but also the extent of axillary surgery, Mamounas says.