The role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has become popular, especially for patients with advanced breast cancer. The pros and cons of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for treating breast cancer patients are reviewed. The advantages of neoadjuvant chemotherapy are 1) overall survival and recurrence-free survival rate are the same as post-operative chemotherapy, 2) serves as an in vivo sensitivity test, 3) increases the rate of breast conserving therapy, 4) facilitates the study of cancer biology.