Targeting Therapies in the Management of Breast Carcinoma

Abstract

One of the oldest molecular target approaches in breast cancer is the targeting of the estrogen receptor with tamoxifen which is responsible for improvement in outcome, reduced the risk of new primary breast cancer and improves survival. Targeted therapies are now a component of treatment for many including colorectal, lung, and pancreatic cancers, as well as lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma.Recent identification of specific molecular target in cancer cells, leads to development of new targeted therapeutic approach, signal transduction, angiogenesis, and more recent approaches are induction of apoptosis or inhibition of antiapoptosis which offer the possibility of improving outcome for patient with early as well as metastatic breast cancer. This review discusses target therapies for HER family, angiogenesis and signal transduction. Abbreviations: HER -human epidermal growth factor receptor, VEGFvascular growth factor receptor, TKItyrosine kinase inhibitor, EGFRepidermal growth factor receptor, mTOR mammalian target of rapamycin, PSTprimary systemic chemotherapy, ER – oestrogen receptor, CDKcyclin-dependent kinase,PI3K-phosphatidyl-inositol3kinase.