To reach this ambitious aim, early breast cancer patients with tumors of at least 2 cm (defined by breast ultrasound) will be evaluated for topo II a gene and protein expression. For this purpose, a pre-treatment biopsy (tru-cut) will be performed and topo II a gene will be evaluated on fixed samples by FISH. The use of a triple probe will allow the concomitant evaluation of the HER-2 gene status. Topo II a protein will be evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Afterwards, all patients, independently of the topo II a gene and protein status, will be treated with single-agent epirubicin Eligibility criteria will allow the participation of patients for whom the use of an anthracycline-based adjuvant therapy would have been most probably proposed after breast cancer surgery, mainly because of estrogen receptor (ER) negativity. Therefore, no overtreatment with anthracyclines will occur in this group of patients. Pathological complete response (pCR) to epirubicin will be correlated with the topo II a gene and protein status. The study has two biological hypotheses, one for the subgroup of patients with ER negative/HER-2 amplified tumors, the other one for the subgroup of patients with ER negative/HER-2 non amplified tumors.