title: Neoadjuvant therapy: what are the lessons so far?
abstract: Lessons have recently been learned in the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This article explains how diagnosis of a pathologic complete response (pCR) can avoid an unfavorable prognosis in patients with high-risk breast cancer; how the surrogacy of pCR for long-term survival remains questionable; how translational biomarker studies have not been helpful in identifying patients with a high chance of treatment benefit; assessment of the prognosis of patients without a pCR for identifying patients at high risk and which clinical trials will be available for these patients in the near future; and which patients might require less locoregional treatment.
authors.affiliation: German Breast Group, Martin-Behaim-Str. 12, Neu-Isenburg 63263, Germany. gunter.vonminckwitz@germanbreastgroup.de
authors.forename: Gunter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: von Minckwitz
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012074:Remission Induction
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: Breast cancer; Locoregional relapse; Neoadjuvant chemotherapy; Pathologic complete response; Postneoadjuvant treatment; Subtypes; Surrogate marker