• 27
  Feb

What is Neo-Adjuvant?

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy means the use of Chemotherapy/targeted therapy before definitive local treatments like Surgery or Radiation.

Advantages of Neo-Adjuvant

1.  Helps in shrinking the tumor which facilitates local treatment like Surgery and radiation and improves the outcome.
2. Can convert locally advanced inoperable tumors to operable or help facilitate organ sparing/ limb salvage surgeries.
3. Helps to assess the biology of disease and assess the response of the tumor to chemotherapy and accordingly give the opportunity to modify treatment if required.
4. Achieving complete pathological response i.e finding no viable tumor in the surgical specimen has been found to translate into better survival in many cancers.

The most common use of Neo-Adjuvant Chemotherapy

1.  Breast cancers
2. Ovarian cancers
3. Esophageal/Gastric/Rectal cancer
4.  Urinary Bladder cancers( Muscle invasive)
5. Bony Sarcomas ( Osteosarcoma/Ewings Sarcoma)
6. selected head and neck cancers
7. Lung Cancers

NOTE: Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy is not a substitute for definitive treatment which includes surgery and/or radiation. It helps to improve outcomes when used in the right indications with Multimodality cancer treatment.