Breast Cancer Metastasis: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

<p>Despite exciting progress in the understanding of breast cancerdevelopment and progression, and in the development of noveltherapeutic strategies, breast cancer remains the second leadingcause of cancer-related death in women, with a yearly toll of morethan 40,000 deaths in the United States alone. Breast cancer–relateddeaths are mainly due to the “incurable” nature of metastaticbreast cancer (MBC) at the current time. It is estimated that?6% of patients have metastatic disease at the time of diagnosisand 20% to 50% patients first diagnosed with primary breast cancerwill eventually develop metastatic disease. Even with the remarkableadvances in research and clinical management, thecurrent treatment strategies for breast cancer metastasis stilllargely rely on the use of systemic cytotoxic agents, which frequentlydeteriorate the patient's life quality due to severe sideeffects and, in many cases, have limited long-term success. Theprognosis for MBC patients is poor, with an estimated 5-year survivalof only 26%. Therefore, MBC remains the most challengingtask facing both cancer researcher and oncologist. To tackle thischallenge, scientists and physicians of the Breast Cancer ResearchProgram at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center held a symposium to(a) provide a better understanding of breast cancer metastasis atthe molecular and cellular level; (b) introduce cutting-edge technologiesin metastatic breast cancer detection, including clinicopathologicdetection, circulating tumor cells (CTC) detection, andadvanced imaging; and (c) solicit innovative ideas in basic, translationalresearch and clinical patient management. The symposiumled to a positive consensus notion that we will be able to prevent,and to a lesser degree, treat metastasis and ultimately save mostpatients from metastatic deaths in the foreseeable future.</p>