Patients with metastatic breast cancer are currently linked to the inability to offer long-term cures. It is the top cancer killer for US women below 54 years. Around 40,000 individuals die each year in the United States, accounting for many lost years of productive life.
One significant gap in breast cancer is the relative lack of molecular profiling of metastatic breast cancer lesions. This void is being addressed through initiatives like the AURORA projects in the United States and Europe. The best form of treatment of metastatic breast cancer, namely preventing the disease altogether, coupled with effective detection and treatment of breast cancer in a premetastatic stage.
The sequential model is best for diseases like colon, pancreatic, and cervical cancers and melanoma, but some variant characterizes many breast cancers as well. Opportunities to develop early detection methods based on analysis of biospecimens or alternative imaging strategies will continue to grow and require rigorous evaluation.
The lessons of four decades of adjuvant systemic therapy with biomarker-driven use of endocrine and anti-HER2–one should also extend based therapies to other targeted therapies as they emerge in the breast cancer space.
Developing a research agenda to increase the cure rate for metastatic breast cancer is a worthwhile aspirational goal, and such work is currently underway.
Ref: https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JOP.2015.009167
