Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Katja Pinker-Domenig, Cornell University, US
- Second opponent: Professor Sophia Zackrisson, Lund University, Sweden
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Jan Oldenburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Associate Professor Stephan Brackmann, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor II Jonn Terje Geitung, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Summary
The use of neoadjuvant systemic therapy in the treatment of breast cancer patients is increasing beyond the scope of locally advanced disease. Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy (NET) is increasingly used in the treatment of locally advanced disease for highly selected patient groups. However, few studies have been conducted with the aim of determining the assessment of treatment response on MRI in patients with locally advanced disease treated with NET.
Imaging provides important information in assessing response to therapy as a complement to conventional tumor measurements via physical examination. MRI allows for improvement of surgical practice, reducing re-excisions while preventing unnecessary mastectomies. Likewise, MRI enables patient selection to neoadjuvant therapies and is the modality of choice for modification of therapeutic agents, for presurgical assessment of residual disease to determine breast-conserving surgery candidacy, and for prediction of pathological complete response (pCR) to triage patients to clinical trials omitting surgery.
The overall aim of this thesis was to discuss and explore the diagnostic feasibility, efficacy, and clinical utility of dynamic MRI assessment as an emerging technique for evaluating NET response for patients diagnosed with locally advanced disease.
The results provide further support for the benefit of a clinico-imaging preoperative assessment for evaluation of response, residual disease, and the importance in deciding patient’s eligibility for breast-conserving surgery. Additionally, our findings are worthy of consideration in a larger cohort of patients, as the importance of breast MRI in prediction of axillary response after NET has not been sufficiently investigated. As the trend towards less aggressive axillary surgery continues, a more accurate, yet encompassing role for imaging will be required in staging axillary disease.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.