Pathway-Oriented Concepts in Adjuvant and Neoadjuvant Breast Cancer Therapy

摘要

Endocrine therapy for breast cancer, the first targeted therapy developed in any type of cancer, was used successfully without an established target for more than 50 years before Jensen and Jacobson in 1960 described the estrogen receptor [1]. However, modern targeted therapy first requires detailed molecular characterization and definition of targetable pathways. A clear example was the identification of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Historically, the overexpression of the HER2 proteins in breast cancer cells was related to an aggressive natural history, but the introduction of drugs that interrupted the HER2 pathway has completely modified the prognosis of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer and has changed clinical practice [2].