Summary

Considerable interest in preoperative systemic therapy (PST) for breast cancer has led to a large number of clinical trials investigating the potential of various preoperative treatments. A major driver in this effort has been the expectation that positive preoperative results would translate into improvements in disease-free survival and overall survival. This article discusses chemotherapy, the impact of PST to enable breast-conserving therapy, radiation issues after PST, as well as considerations for radiation therpay treatment of inflammatory breast cancer.