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Adjuvant Chemotherapy

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Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer

Part of the book series: Cancer Treatment and Research ((CTAR,volume 151))

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Apparently localized breast cancer which has been treated with optimal locoregional therapy can recur months or years later, ultimately resulting in death. This is generally believed to be due to the development of occult micrometastases disseminated in the body and already present at the time of the initial surgery. Destruction of these micrometastases is the aim of adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy. Adjuvant therapies have been widely used since the 1970s and, although the absolute survival benefit they confer is modest (10%), they have been credited, together with screening and improvement of loco-regional treatment, for the reduction in breast cancer mortality observed in recent decades.

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  1. Centre René Huguenin St Cloud, Saint-Cloud, France

    M. Tubiana-Hulin MD & M. Gardner

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  1. Inselspital, Univ. Bern, Bern, 3010, Switzerland

    Monica Castiglione

  2. Inst. Jules Bordet, Universite Libre Bruxelles, Bd. de Waterloo 125, Bruxelles, 1000, Belgium

    Martine J. Piccart

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Tubiana-Hulin, M., Gardner, M. (2009). Adjuvant Chemotherapy. In: Castiglione, M., Piccart, M. (eds) Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer. Cancer Treatment and Research, vol 151. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75115-3_9

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