Chemotherapy before breast cancer surgery might fuel metastasis
When breast cancer patients get chemotherapy before surgery, it can make remaining malignant cells spread to distant sites, a new study found.
by Sharon Begley
Jul 10, 2017
3 minutes
When breast cancer patients get chemotherapy before surgery to remove their tumor, it can make remaining malignant cells spread to distant sites, resulting in incurable metastatic cancer, scientists reported last week.
The main goal of pre-operative (neoadjuvant) chemotherapy for breast cancer is to shrink tumors so women can have a lumpectomy rather than a more invasive mastectomy. It was therefore initially used only on large tumors after being introduced about 25 years ago. But as fewer and fewer women were diagnosed with large breast tumors, pre-op chemo began to be used in patients with smaller
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