"Cytological assessment of prognosis and response to neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer"










Project Summary and Objectives:

Neoadjuvant treatment for primary breast cancer using multi-drug chemotherapy and tamoxifen produces very high objective response rates. For patients who would be receiving drug treatment anyway, use of such treatment before surgery will reduce the surgical requirements, particularly mastectomy. Furthermore, such treatment may reduce the risk of local and systematic spread and thereby improve the quality of life and survival. We have a project underway using cytological specimens from fine needle aspirations for measurement of molecular markers for prognosis and response to treatment. We aim to identify those patients who need no drug treatment, those who need systemic drug treatment that would be better given prior to surgery thereby reducing the requirements for surgical treatment and those patients who need more intensive therapy by using a cytological index based on the measurement of molecular markers for prognosis.


Further information may be obtained from:

Dr T J Powles                                                                                                    Head of Breast Unit
The Royal Marsden NHS Trust
Downs Road
Sutton
Surrey   SM3 6JJ
UK




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