title: Metastatic breast cancer: The Odyssey of personalization.
abstract: Metastatic breast cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer death for women worldwide. In the last 15 years, a large number of new agents have entered clinical use, a result of the dramatic increase in our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of metastatic breast cancer. However, while these agents have led to better outcomes, they are also at the root cause of increasing financial pressure on healthcare systems. Moreover, decision making in an era where every year new agents are added to the therapeutic armamentarium has also become a significant challenge for medical oncologists. In the present article, we will provide an ample review on the most recent developments in the field of treatment of the different subtypes of metastatic breast cancer with a critical discussion on the slow progress made in identifying response biomarkers. New hopes in the form of ctDNA monitoring and functional imaging will be presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard de Waterloo 125, B 1000 Brussels, Belgium; Sharett Institute of Oncology, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sonnenblick
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard de Waterloo 125, B 1000 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pondé
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard de Waterloo 125, B 1000 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: martine.piccart@bordet.be.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piccart
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D004260:DNA Repair; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000188:drug therapy; D057285:Precision Medicine
keywords: Biomarkers; Breast cancer; Precision medicine; Target therapy