Medical Therapy of Locally Advanced Breast Cancer.

The term "locally advanced breast cancer" (LABC) encompasses a heterogeneous group of clinical scenarios. Historically, this has included patients with tumors larger than 5 cm in size and/or tumors that involve the skin or chest wall. Advanced nodal involvement also is included in this definition; patients with matted axillary lymph nodes, involvement of the ipsilateral supraclavicular, infraclavicular, or internal mammary lymph nodes are also included in this group description. The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM staging system includes all patients with clinical and pathologic stage III disease as well as a subgroup of stage IIB (T3N0) patients in this locally advanced group [1]. Inflammatory breast cancer has often been included in this group; however, this disease has distinct biologic behavior and clinical presentation that separates it into a distinct category from patients described as being advanced purely by tumor size or nodal status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]