title: Clinical and molecular complexity of breast cancer metastases.
abstract: Clinical oncology is advancing toward a more personalized treatment orientation, making the need to understand the biology of metastasis increasingly acute. Dissecting the complex molecular, genetic and clinical phenotypes underlying the processes involved in the development of metastatic disease, which remains the principal cause of cancer-related deaths, could lead to the identification of more effective prognostication and targeted approaches to prevent and treat metastases. The past decade has witnessed significant progress in the field of cancer metastasis research. Clinical and technological milestones have been reached which have tremendously enriched our understanding of the complex pathways undertaken by primary tumors to progress into lethal metastases and how some of these processes might be amenable to therapy. The aim of this review article is to highlight the recent advances toward unraveling the clinical and molecular complexity of breast cancer metastases. We focus on genes mediating breast cancer metastases and organ-specific tropism, and discuss gene signatures for prediction of metastatic disease. The challenges of translating this information into clinically applicable tools for improving the prognostication of the metastatic potential of a primary breast tumor, as well as for therapeutic interventions against latent and active metastatic disease are addressed.
authors: Division of Oncology and Pathology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; CREATE Health Strategic Center for Translational Cancer Research, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
authors: Siker
authors: S
authors: Kimbung
authors: Division of Oncology and Pathology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Department of Oncology, Skåne University Hospital, Lund/Malmö, Sweden.
authors: Niklas
authors: N
authors: Loman
authors: Division of Oncology and Pathology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; CREATE Health Strategic Center for Translational Cancer Research, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: Ingrid.Hedenfalk@med.lu.se.
authors: Ingrid
authors: I
authors: Hedenfalk
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: Breast cancer; Metastasis; Organ-specific tropism; Prognosis; Targeted therapy; Tumor heterogeneity