BACKGROUND The optimum timing of sentinel-lymph-node biopsy for breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy is uncertain. The SENTINA (SENTinel NeoAdjuvant) study was designed to evaluate a specific algorithm for timing of a standardised sentinel-lymph-node biopsy procedure in patients who undergo neoadjuvant chemotherapy. METHODS SENTINA is a four-arm, prospective, multicent...

BACKGROUND Interest in the use of preoperative systemic treatment in the management of breast cancer has increased because such neoadjuvant therapy appears to reduce the extent of local surgery required. We compared the clinical end points of patients with breast cancer treated preoperatively with systemic therapy (neoadjuvant therapy) and of those treated postoperatively with the same regimen ...

BACKGROUND Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been shown to have benefit in T1 high-grade or T2 bladder cancer. However, neoadjuvant chemotherapy fails in some patients. Careful patient selection for neoadjuvant chemotherapy is therefore needed. Several reports show that Snail is associated with resistance to chemotherapy. We hypothesized that Snail expression could predict survival in T1 high-grade ...

In patients with advanced breast cancer, most new calcifications detected on a mammogram after neoadjuvant chemotherapy are benign dystrophic calcifications, but this is not always observed. We present a patient with advanced breast cancer who had paradoxically increased malignant microcalcifications concomitant with primary tumor regression after undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. After the ...

Radical cystectomy is the standard treatment for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Bladder cancer is a chemoresponsive disease and should be dealt with in a multimodality approach. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is intended for patients with operable clinical stage T2 to T4a muscle-invasive disease to improve survival. Meta-analysis of cisplatin-containing combination neoadjuvant chemothe...

Neoadjuvant therapy has become the standard of care for locally advanced mid-low rectal cancer. Pathological complete response (pCR) can be achieved in 12%-38% of patients. Patients with pCR have the most favorable long-term outcomes. Intensifying neoadjuvant therapy and extending the interval between termination of neoadjuvant treatment and surgery may increase the pCR rate. Growing evidence h...

BACKGROUND Although its incidence has been steadily decreasing in Western countries, gastric cancer remains a leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. The detection rate of early-stage cancers is improving; nevertheless, the majority of cases is still diagnosed at later stages with a poor prognosis. Furthermore, the results that can be achieved with surgery have reached a plateau of effectiven...

Radical prostatectomy is the effective treatment for clinical T2 prostatic cancer. However, clinical T2 stage is often understaged preoperatively. The objective of neoadjuvant therapy is to increase the curability of surgery to understaged patients. The present study was based on patients who had had neoadjuvant endocrine therapy (LH-RH agonist) prior to radical nerve-sparing prostatectomy for ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to determine the hospital's efficiency as regards neoadjuvant chemotherapy for the resection of initially unresectable metastases for patients with metastatic primary colorectal cancer and to describe the chemotherapy used. METHODS Descriptive, retrospective study of patients with colorectal cancer from 2004 to 2007. The percentage of resection for metastase...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine whether preoperative neoadjuvant therapy in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer affects the ability of multiphasic MDCT to predict successful surgical resection. MATERIALS AND METHODS From 2000 to 2006, there were 12 patients with prior neoadjuvant therapy successfully downstaged by CT and 31 age-matched pancreatic cancer patie...