Why does breast cancer need chemotherapy in the early stages

Why is chemotherapy used in the early stages of breast cancer?

The main purpose of early chemotherapy for breast cancer is to prevent distant metastasis of the tumor, which helps to increase the patient's survival time.

Early breast cancer generally refers to stage 0-II breast cancer. Stage 0 breast cancer generally does not require chemotherapy, and only regular follow-up examinations are required after surgery. Whether stage I-II breast cancer requires chemotherapy depends on the stage, grade, molecular typing of the tumor cells and the patient's wishes. For breast cancer with molecular typing of cavity A, most of them are invasive ductal carcinomas with a good prognosis, low lymph node positivity rate, and less local and distant metastasis.

This type of tumor cells is sensitive to endocrine therapy but not to chemotherapy, and chemotherapy cannot be given after surgery. For molecular subtypes of breast cancer such as triple-negative and Her2-positive, adjuvant chemotherapy is recommended after surgery, but the chemotherapy regimen should be selected based on tumor pathology, the patient's physical condition, the patient's wishes, and the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

It is recommended that pregnant, elderly, weak, or patients with severe systemic diseases should carefully choose chemotherapy or give up chemotherapy.