The role of surgery in the combined treatment of locally advanced breast cancer.

Sixty patients with stage IIIA and IIIB breast cancer have been treated with a combined modality approach including induction chemotherapy, surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy: 74.5% of patients achieved an objective response after 3 cycles of induction chemotherapy, and 98.3% of patients were rendered disease-free after induction chemotherapy and surgery or radiotherapy; at 4 years, actuarial survival and disease-free survival are 71.5% and 43%, respectively. These results are significantly better than our historical control, and locally advanced breast cancer must now be considered a curable disease when treated with an aggressive multimodal approach.