NEOADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY IN HER2-POSITIVE AND TRIPLE-NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a standard option in the management of operable breast cancer, as effective as adjuvant chemotherapy in term of survival and with the potential to increase the rate of breast conservation. In HER2+ and triple-negative breast cancers, neoadjuvant chemotherapy is associated with a high probability of pathological complete response, which strongly predicts survival outcome. In HER2+ breast cancer, trastuzumab, in combination with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, mostly anthracyclines and taxane-based, demonstrated a significant increase in pathological complete response rate. Recently, dual HER2 blockade strategies (lapatinib-trastuzumab or pertuzumab-trastuzumab) demonstrated a significant improvement in terms of pathological complete response over trastuzumab. In triple-negative breast cancer, recent data indicate that incorporating platinum compounds to neoadjuvant chemotherapy also significantly improves this parameter. Yet, in both subtypes, whether these substantial improvements may lead to significant benefits in terms of survival and breast conserving surgery remains to be demonstrated.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Cancer du sein; Chimiothérapie; HER2; Neoadjuvant; Tripie-negative; Triple-négatif; chemotherapy; néo-adjuvante.
© 2016 Société Française du Cancer. Publié par Elsevier Masson SAS.