Chemotherapy before breast cancer surgery According to studies
at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, chemotherapy
is as effective before breast cancer surgery as after. Norman
Swan: Big change of topic now. There's a debate among cancer
specialists about whether women with breast cancer benefit from
having chemotherapy before their operation to remove their
tumour. It's called neoadjuvant chemotherapy. A major reason for
doing this is when the tumour is large, to shrink it enough so
that a woman heading for a mastectomy, breast removal, might
only need a lump removal plus radiotherapy, a much less
traumatic procedure. The question is whether waiting while this
happens affects a woman's chance of cure? Dr Elizabeth
Mittendorf is at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, one
of the world's leading cancer hospitals. Elizabeth Mittendorf:
By looking at our experience at MD Anderson we actually end up
having the largest experience of women who've undergone breast-
conserving therapy after neoadjuva