Without Surgery: Early Chemotherapy for a Type of Breast Cancer

Cancer Completely Residual After Treatment

A small new study has shown that patients diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer can safely avoid surgery if the tumors disappear after chemotherapy.

Thirty-one patients with small, invasive, HER-2-positive or triple-negative tumors who had no evidence of residual cancer after chemotherapy received radiation therapy, but none underwent surgery.

Early Treatment for Breast Cancer

Five years later, all were alive and cancer-free, researchers reported at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology in Tampa, Florida, and in the journal JAMA Oncology.

"The absence of breast cancer recurrence after five years highlights the tremendous potential of this surgery-free approach to breast cancer management," Dr. Henry Querer, who led the study from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said in a statement. 

Expanding the Treatment Trial

He attributed the success to the use of a highly accurate biopsy method to detect any residual disease.

Querer noted that researchers are expanding the trial to include more women, adding, "These continued promising results suggest that eliminating breast surgery for invasive breast cancer could become the new standard of care, offering women the opportunity to preserve their bodies."