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INTRODUCTIONBreast cancer brings with itself an added fear of disfigurement and psychological trauma that leads to personality devastation, the breast ever since being considered the ultimate symbol of femininity. Despite extensive research, its etiology and treatment are still not fully understood. Clinicians world over are in constant search of insight into the behaviour of this disease so that they are able to provide better chances of cure, survival and personality preservation.Breast cancer incidence is showing rising trend in India for last two decades competing with cancer cervix and interchanging places for the top position in all the registries of ICMR among women.1 Thus it becomes all the more important how the disease is dealt with because small improvements in treatment strategy may translate ABSTRACT Background: This was a prospective study conducted in a tertiary care hospital over a period of one year w.e.f 01.09.06 to 31.08.07 and included 25 female breast cancer patients who were fine needle aspiration cytology proven. The objective of this study was to observe the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in T1-T3, N0-N1, M0 patients and to determine the % of patients on whom breast conservation surgery could be performed. Majority of the patients were in 5th or 6th decades of life. Methods: Thorough clinical examination, bilateral mammography and ultrasound of the diseased breast was performed before administering CAF (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and 5-Fluorouracil) based NACT. Majority of the patients received three cycles of NACT. All patients tolerated the treatment well without any severe adverse effects. Results: Overall 84% of the patients showed response to NACT with 12% showing complete clinical regression of the primary tumour. The incidence of clinically negative axilla increased from 20% to 48% after NACT. The breast conservation surgery (BCS) rate increased from 12% to 64% after NACT. Conclusions: Of 16 patients who had undergone BCS, one patient had ipsilateral breast recurrence at four years and another one at six years of follow up; that proves the importance and success of BCS in carefully selected patients in our setup.