Adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer — the current state of knowledge

Abstract

Adjuvant chemotherapy is one of the elements used in combined treatment of patients with early breast cancer. The decision if chemotherapy should be given and the choice of regimen must be individualized depending on the nature of the tumor (stage, hormonal receptor and HER2 status, grade, Ki-67 expression) and patient’s characteristic (biological age, comorbidities) and the patient’s preference. A number of clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of different regimens in adjuvant setting were performed. We discuss the results of the most important studies including their recently published updates which have a longer follow-up period. We present the current management of breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant therapy. We also discuss the issues requiring further research (e.g. the assessment of specific regimens’ efficacy depending on biological subtype of breast cancer).