Review on Assessment of Response of Neo-Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients of Carcinoma Breast by High Frequency Ultrasound

Neo-Adjuvant Chemotherapy (NACT) is used in patients with breast cancer to reduce tumour focus, metastatic risk, and patient mortality. Neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer has become established as a safe and often effective therapeutic approach of choice for larger primary and for locally advanced breast cancer. Neoadjuvant approach offers the advantages of down staging the disease, potentially reducing the extent of surgery and in an era of individualisation of therapy, tests the efficacy of therapy administered to patients. The preoperative setting is also an effective way to study the activity of novel agents or therapeutic combinations in vivo against human breast cancer. For new therapies, preoperative trials avoid the issue of adaptive resistance and pre-treatments that can be problematic in the advanced disease setting. Monitoring NAC effects is necessary to capture resistant patients and stop or change treatment. The existing methods for evaluating NAC results have some limitations. Quantitative ultrasound information can characterise the tumour's pathological response better and at an earlier stage of therapy than the assessment of the reduction of its dimensions. The introduction of statistical parameters of ultrasonic backscatter to monitor the effects of chemotherapy can increase the effectiveness of monitoring and contribute to a better personalisation of NAC therapy.