Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, when administered before surgery, offers multiple advantages for breast cancer patients. In addition to facilitating breast and armpit surgery, it allows doctors to observe how the tumor responds to treatment in real time, offering valuable information to adjust subsequent treatments according to the observed response.
Now, researchers from IDIBELL and the Catalan Institute of Oncology, in collaboration with professionals from the Bellvitge University Hospital, have published a retrospective study that offers a general assessment of its effectiveness, providing new perspectives on its benefits and long-term results.
The study, carried out in a cohort of 482 patients with stage II and III breast cancer treated between 2009 and 2016, analyzed the efficacy of chemotherapy based on anthracyclines and taxanes, with the addition of anti-HER2 therapies in HER2-positive cases. The results, recently published in the journal Cancers, have been very optimistic: 25% of patients achieved a complete pathological response, especially HER2-positive patients (51%) and triple-negative patients (31%), which has resulted in improved long-term survival.
Some of the key factors influencing patients’ survival were the type of tumor, response to chemotherapy, type of surgery, and the presence of vascular invasion. One of the most interesting discoveries was that carriers of the BRCA gene had better survival, although it was not statistically significant, probably due to the lower number of cases (9% of the total).
On the other hand, the study also showed that patients who could be offered breast-conserving surgery after chemotherapy had half the risk of distant recurrence compared to those who required mastectomy, thus highlighting the safety of breast-conserving surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research center created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Center of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).