New research, set to be discussed at the European Society for Medical Oncology [ESMO] Breast Cancer Congress (May 6-8, 2026 in Berlin) purports that "a less intensive chemotherapy regimen is associated with improved quality of life for patients, without compromising clinical outcome." Traditional approaches to treatment, with an intent to extend treatment for several years to maximize tumour control, may lead to "unnecessary toxicities and treatment burden." Multimodal strategies are being explored to de-escalate treatments, such as removing carboplatin from chemotherapy in a neoadjuvant setting, or a positron emission tomography (PET)-guided strategy "associated with a high 3-year invasive disease-free survival rate in patients with HER-2 positive early breast cancer who omitted chemotherapy."
Click here to read more:
Sources mentioned (conference abstracts)