[Feasibility of breast conservation surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer].

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) and the feasibility of conservative breast surgery after reducing the size of a primary tumor by NCT in patients with operable breast cancer.

Methods: Thirty patients with stage IIB and IIIA breast cancer underwent NCT including epirubicin 60 mg/m(2) by intravenous injection on day 1 and paclitaxel 150 mg/m(2) by 3-hour continuous infusion on day 2 with 21 days as a cycle from July 2001 to April 2003. All patients received 3 - 4 cycles of NCT.