Biomarkers in the management of breast cancer: great expectations, hard times.
Progress in biomarkers research has resulted in increasing awareness of the heterogeneity of breast cancer. The identification of subtypes with different clinical behavior and the possibility of using targeted therapy in specific subgroup of patients (eg, those with tumors overexpressing HER2) raise expectations for increasing personalization of treatment. However, there is a widening gap between scientific discoveries and practical application in everyday practice: too many patients are still being managed based only on traditional clinical and pathologic parameters, because of lack of access to up to date technology-such as gene profiling, or cell proliferation assays-in many cancer centers in the United Kingdom. In this article, we provide some examples of this contrast, drawn from the literature and from our own clinical experience in South West Wales, and discuss possible solutions.
South West Wales Cancer Institute, Singleton Hospital, Swansea, United Kingdom.
Gianfilippo
G
Bertelli
Daniel J
DJ
Nelmes
Asmaa
A
Al-Allak
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000235:genetics*; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D057285:Precision Medicine; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D006113:United Kingdom
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human