Approach to Neoadjuvant-Treated Breast Cancer Cases

Course overview

Post-neoadjuvant treated breast cancer specimens are among the most technically challenging breast specimens to evaluate. The response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy provides crucial prognostic information and guides additional treatment planning. Therefore, accurate pathologic evaluation of these specimens is critical for patient management. This lecture will review how to approach these specimens including how to perform a careful and systematic gross examination, how to evaluate patterns of residual disease, and how to navigate the different systems for reporting residual disease (RCB and AJCC). After this presentation, participants will be able to: - Discuss the clinical advantages for using neoadjuvant chemotherapy in certain breast cancer cases - Describe the relative rates of pCR following neoadjuvant chemotherapy for the different receptor subtypes of breast cancer - Apply appropriate sampling technique for post-neoadjuvant breast cancer cases - Explain the different reporting systems for post-neoadjuvant breast cancer cases and know how to apply them to individual cases