Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for triple-negative and Her2 +ve breast cancer: striving for the standard of care

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for triple-negative (TN) and Her2-positive (HER2) breast cancers is supported by international guidelines as it can decrease extent of surgery, provide prognostic information, and allow response-driven adjuvant therapies. Our goal was to describe practice patterns for patients with TN and HER2-positive breast cancer and identify the factors associated with the receipt of NAC versus surgery as initial treatment. A retrospective population-based cohort study of adult women diagnosed with stage I–III TN or HER2-positive breast cancer (2012–2020) in Ontario was completed using linked administrative datasets. The primary outcome was NAC as first treatment. The association between NAC and patient, tumor, and practice-related factors was examined using multivariable logistic regression models. Of 14,653 patients included, 23.9