Breast cancer – where are we standing in 2011?
Journal Title: Postępy Nauk Medycznych - Year 2011, Vol 24, Issue 2
Abstract
Breast cancer is one of the major health and social problems in women. Due to the wide application of screening programs and to improvements in treatment, breast cancer mortality in some countries has decreased by more than 30% over the last twenty years. Advances in breast cancer management include also the decreasing negative impact of therapy on patients’ quality of life. This is mostly achieved by substituting major, mutilating surgery with organ-sparing or reconstructive procedures. The progress in systemic treatment of breast cancer is mostly related to the developments in molecular biology and a better understanding of breast cancer pathomechanisms, including identification of molecular subtypes of breast cancer by multigene assays. This has led to a profound modification of treatment strategies in early breast cancer. Failure risk has now been substituted as the main factor driving treatment decision-making by biology of tumor and likely sensitivity to particular treatment modalities. Most important achievements include also the development of trastuzumab and lapatinib – molecularly “targeted” compounds directed against HER2. Development of targeted therapy includes not only designing targeted agents but also identification of constitutive predictive features of particular patients, which may allow individual tailoring of systemic therapies. Among these, most interest is raised by polymorphisms of the cytochrome P450 2D6 – an enzyme involved in the metabolism of tamoxifen. Ongoing research will hopefully result in further improvements in prognosis and quality of life of breast cancer patients.
Authors and Affiliations
Elżbieta Senkus, Jacek Jassem
Keywords
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