Overview of diagnostic/targeted treatment combinations in personalized medicine for breast cancer patients

Abstract

Anna Tessari,1 Dario Palmieri,2 Serena Di Cosimo11Division of Medical Oncology 1, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy; 2Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics, Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USAAbstract: Breast cancer includes a body of molecularly distinct subgroups, characterized by different presentation, prognosis, and sensitivity to treatments. Significant advances in our understanding of the complex architecture of this pathology have been achieved in the last few decades, thanks to new biotechnologies that have recently come into the research field and the clinical practice, giving oncologists new instruments that are based on biomarkers and allowing them to set up a personalized approach for each individual patient. Here we review the main treatments available or in preclinical development, the biomolecular diagnostic and prognostic approaches that changed our perspective about breast cancer, giving an overview of targeted therapies that represent the current standard of care for these patients. Finally, we report some examples of how new technologies in clinical practice can set in motion the development of new drugs.Keywords: breast cancer, biomarkers, gene expression profile, next generation sequencing, targeted therapy