Cancer treatment
Neoadjuvant treatment
Treatment given before surgery to shrink the tumour, treat microscopic disease and check how it responds to the drug.
Neoadjuvant and adjuvant do not describe different drugs, but the moment at which they are given in relation to surgery.
Neoadjuvant treatment shrinks the tumour, can turn an inoperable situation into an operable one, and provides information available in no other way: how that tumour responds to that drug. A tumour that progresses during preoperative chemotherapy is biologically aggressive.
Adjuvant treatment acts on microscopic disease once the visible tumour has been removed, and is indicated according to stage and estimated risk of relapse, with no way of measuring response.
This explanation is intended as general information and does not replace a specialist assessment of an individual case.
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