Dr. Boughey on Locoregional Trials for Breast Cancer

Judy C. Boughey, MD, chair, Division of Surgery Research, Mayo Clinic, discusses locoregional clinical trials for breast cancer.

Boughey stresses the importance of understanding active clinical trials and unanswered questions to advance breast cancer care. For example, a recent study examined patients with node-positive breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Medical oncologists, she adds, are becoming more effective at administering systemic therapy.

While systemic therapies and targeted therapies are improving, Boughey says that surgical oncologists are also observing less disease in the breast and lymph nodes prior to surgery. This raises the question whether or not surgical oncologists need to remain maximally invasive in these patients or if they can adjust surgical management.