SUMMARY: About 10-25% of breast cancer patients achieve a pathologically confirmed complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Tissue samples of pretreatment core biopsies are a valuable resource for translational research aiming towards predictive biomarkers for selecting patients who are likely to benefit from neoadjuvant therapy. The German Breast Group (GBG) and the AGO-B Group (AGO =...

Women receiving neoadjuvant systemic therapy for primary operable or inoperable breast cancer can potentially benefit in a number of ways, but the main advantage, which has been consistently demonstrated, is improved tumour resectability. Given the improvement in outcomes with the adjuvant use of trastuzumab in patients with early-stage breast cancer positive for the human epidermal growth fact...

Although both surgery and radiation are potential curative options for men with clinically localized prostate cancer, a significant proportion of men with high-risk and locally advanced disease will demonstrate biochemical and potentially clinical progression of their disease. Neoadjuvant systemic therapy before radical prostatectomy (RP) is a logical strategy to improve treatment outcomes for ...

Chemotherapy and hormonal treatment decisions for breast cancer are influenced by the expression of tumor biomarkers, including estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth hormone receptor 2 (HER2/neu). These biomarkers are most commonly assessed by immunohistochemical staining and fluorescence in situ hybridization studies performed on breast cancer biopsy specimens. Bi...

Neoadjuvant therapy refers to chemotherapy or radiation administered before surgery when surgery is intended as the definitive local/regional treatment (7). The objectives of neoadjuvant therapy are to enable the resection of an otherwise unresectable neoplasm, to reduce the risk of local or of distant recurrences, and to increase the survival rate. A review of the recent literature indicates t...

Introduction: We performed a retrospective analysis to clarify the role of neoadjuvant radiation therapy in the management of resectable gastric cancer. Methods and Methodology: All patients underwent R0 gastrectomy between 1974 and 2008 were retrospectively evaluated. Among them 597 patients underwent multimodal treatment with various schemes of intensive preoperative radiation therapy (total ...

In this edition of the Journal of Surgical Oncology Seminar series, we hoped to create a collection of review articles, detailing the current status of neoadjuvant strategies for the most common solid tumors. We thought that our readers would benefit from an up-to-date review of the topics, collected in a single publication. Neoadjuvant therapy was initially designed to preoperatively treat loc...

The dramatic improvement in local control of rectal cancer observed during the last decades is to be attributed to attention to surgical technique and to the introduction of neoadjuvant therapy regimens. Nevertheless, systemic relapse remains frequent and is currently insufficiently addressed. Intensification of neoadjuvant therapy by incorporating chemotherapy with or without targeted agents b...

......................................... Received: 29-01-14 Accepted: 05-11-14 Abstract Complete clinical response after neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced rectal cancer has been considered sufficient for implementation of a non-surgical approach of observation and monitoring by some authors. Standard management of this condition is radical resection of the primary tumor six to ten weeks...