"Chemotherapy Before Breast Cancer Surgery Might Fuel Metastasis" - Sharon Begley

When breast cancer patients get chemotherapy before surgery to remove their tumor, it can make remaining malignant cells spread to distant sites, resulting in incurable metastatic cancer. The main goal of pre-operative chemotherapy for breast cancer is to shrink tumors so women can have a lumpectomy rather than a more invasive mastectomy. But as fewer and fewer women were diagnosed with large breast tumors, pre-op chemo began to be used in patients with smaller cancers, too, in the hope that it would extend survival. Pre-op chemo may have unwanted long-term consequences in some breast cancer patients. That finding is “fascinating, powerful, and very important,” said Julio Aguirre-Ghiso, PhD, professor of hematology and medical oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, an expert in metastasis who was not involved in the study. “It raises awareness that we might have to be smarter about how we use chemotherapy.”

- Julio Aguirre-Ghiso, PhD, Professor, Medicine, Hematology, Medical Oncology, Otolaryngology, Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

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