[Jackie07]

Neoadjuvant therapy had been discussed on the board since at least 7 years ago. I remember one of the advantages is that the oncologists can monitor the reaction of the cancer cells to the drug combo. Below is the link to the abstract of a new article that mentioned the practice.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23861693>

Clin Dev Immunol. 2013;2013:785317. doi: 10.1155/2013/785317. Epub 2013 Jun 3.
New insights into the role of the immune microenvironment in breast carcinoma.
de la Cruz-Merino L, Barco-Sánchez A, Henao Carrasco F, Nogales Fernández E, Vallejo BenÃ*tez A, Brugal Molina J, MartÃ*nez Peinado A, Grueso López A, Ruiz Borrego M, Codes Manuel de Villena M, Sánchez-Margalet V, Nieto-GarcÃ*a A, Alba Conejo E, Casares Lagar N, Ibáñez MartÃ*nez J.
Source
Clinical Oncology Department, Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, Avenida Dr. Fedriani s/n, 41009 Sevilla, Spain.
Abstract
Recently, immune edition has been recognized as a new hallmark of cancer. In this respect, some clinical trials in breast cancer have reported imppressive outcomes related to laboratory immune findings, especially in the neoadjuvant and metastatic setting. Infiltration by tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and their subtypes, tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) and myeloid-derived suppressive cells (MDSC) seem bona fide prognostic and even predictive biomarkers, that will eventually be incorporated into diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms of breast cancer. In addition, the complex interaction of costimulatory and coinhibitory molecules on the immune synapse and the different signals that they may exert represent another exciting field to explore. In this review we try to summarize and elucidate these new concepts and knowledge from a translational perspective focusing on breast cancer, paying special attention to those aspects that might have more significance in clinical practice and could be useful to design successful therapeutic strategies in the future