Preoperative Chemotherapy for Operable Breast Cancer Is Associated with Better Compliance with Adjuvant Therapy in Matched Stage II and IIIA Patients

Introduction. Preoperative chemotherapy (PC) for operable breast cancer has shown significant benefits in prospectivetrials.Manypatientsaretreatedinthecommunity setting and some may question the applicability of PC outside the university setting. Methods. Retrospective review was performed of stage II and IIIA breast cancer patients treated from January 2002 to July 2009. Fifty-three of 57 patients who underwent PC were matched based on age, tumor size, and hormone receptor status with 53 patients who did not undergo PC. Differences in patient compliance with physician recommendations for all types of adjuvant therapy were evaluated. Crude odds ratios and adjusted odds ratios derived from conditional logistic regression models were calculated. Results. There were 106 patients included. Patient compliance with chemotherapy was better in the PC group than in the adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) group (100% versus 70%;p.0001). Similarly, more patients