Primary chemotherapy in operable breast cancer: eight-year experience at the Milan Cancer Institute.

PURPOSE

Primary chemotherapy was administered to patients with tumors that measured > or = 2.5 cm in largest diameter to decrease the size of the primary tumor and allow for effective local and distant control while avoiding mastectomy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Two prospective nonrandomized studies were performed that used different regimens of primary chemotherapy followed by breast-sparing surgery in the presence of objective tumor remission. Additional postoperative chemotherapy was given to women at high risk of disease relapse. The median follow-up duration was 65 months.

RESULTS

A total of 536 assessable patients were enrolled, and the main characteristics were fairly comparable between the two trials. Following primary chemotherapy, 85% of patients could be subjected to breast-sparing surgery; in 14 patients (3%), surgical specimens failed to show any residual neoplastic cell. In the final multivariate analysis, the histologically assessed extent of axillary node involvement (P < .001), as well as degree of response to primary chemotherapy (P = .034), represented the significant variables able to influence 8-year relapse-free survival. In women subjected to a breast-conserving approach, the cumulative risk of local relapse as first event alone was 6.8% (95% confidence interval, 3.9% to 8.8%).

CONCLUSION

Current findings indicate that primary chemotherapy can be safely administered in women with large tumors (>5.0 cm) and can allow breast-sparing surgery in a high fraction of patients (62%). However, to assess effectively the worthiness of this approach on long-term results, properlyconceived large randomized studies with newer and more effective drug regimens are warranted.