title: Emerging drugs in metastatic breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and comprises 26% of all cancers diagnosed in women in the United States. Among presenting patients, 3 - 6% already have metastatic disease, and 50 - 70% of the remaining patients develop systemic relapse. Recently many new drugs, particularly molecular targeted therapies, have been developed in the field.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To review the current and emerging data on the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, with emphasis on novel therapies that show promise.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed and ASCO annual meeting abstracts were used for a literature search.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite improved response rates, conventional treatments still result only in transient remission in most cases. New therapeutic alternatives and new strategies to overcome drug resistance are needed to improve these results.
authors.affiliation: Hacettepe University Institute of Oncology, Department of Medical Oncology, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dizdar
authors.forename: Kadri
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Altundag
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D012008:Recurrence; D012074:Remission Induction / Q000379:methods; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents