Neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced breast cancer: Focus on chemotherapy and biological targeted treatments’ armamentarium

Despite progress achieved in diagnosis and therapy in recent years, locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) remains a major clinical issue. Biological characteristics and clinical behavior varies widely, ranging from indolent to locally aggressive or generalized disease. In depth knowledge of biology of cancer progression and cancer could lead to the identification of tumor characteristics associated with outcome. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) integrated into a multimodality program is nowadays the established treatment in LABC. Although our efforts in this research task are ongoing, of special clinical interest is the integration of anti-HER2 and other biological therapies, as anti-angiogenesis targeted treatments, that may further improve the long term control of LABC. Clinical management of LABC could be modified based on molecular biology and an approach tailored to each patient will optimize therapy.