Increasingly, physicians are treating early stage breast cancer more aggressively. Doctors have a large arsenal of treatments available, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. Early-stage breast cancer is usually treated with surgery and perhaps radiation to treat the breast followed by a systemic treatment, such as chemotherapy, in an approach known as adjuvant therapy. In an attempt to treat early-stage breast cancer more completely and to reduce damage to the breast from surgery, doctors have begun giving chemotherapy in advance of surgery in a practice called neoadjuvant therapy. Several classes of commonly used chemotherapy agents include the alkylating agents such as Cytoxan® (cyclophosphamide), the anthracyclines, such as Adriamycin (doxorubicin) and Ellence® (epirubicin) and most recently the taxanes, which include Taxol® (paclitaxel) and Taxotere® (docetaxel). Often, therapies are given in combination to increase their effectiveness.