Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy for operable breast cancer induces apoptosis

The use of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (often referred to as pre-operative or primary chemotherapy) represents a major change in the management of breas t cancer as a systemic disease. Laboratory studies have shown that many ant i-cancer agents with differing modes of action achieve cytotoxic effects by inducing apoptosis. In this study, we investigated the induction of apopto sis by neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in human breast cancer. The aim was to det ermine whether a correlation existed between post chemotherapy apoptotic in dex (AI) and clinical response and patients' survival. Our results indicate that apoptosis is induced by neo-adjuvant chemotherapy and that the respon se is variable. Our data show that post chemotherapy AI correlated with cli nical response and increased patient survival, including both relapse (dise ase) free survival and overall survival. Post-neo-adjuvant chemotherapy AI levels in primary breast cancer may possibly predict an individual patient' s overall response.