Chemotherapy still represents the mainstay of therapy for many breast cancer patients. Indeed, it is the only available option for the treatment of triple-negative disease. Moreover, targeted agents, in particular anti-HER2 compounds, show the highest efficacy when combined with chemotherapy. Research efforts should therefore continue to investigate new chemotherapeutic drugs, with the attempt to increase efficacy and reduce toxicity. Similarly to targeted drugs, cytotoxic compounds should be developed in the context of personalized medicine, by adopting tools including high-throughput technologies to select sensitive patient subsets. Indeed, it seems clear by now that great advances in the general, unselected breast cancer population are no longer possible. The attention has to be moved to smaller breast cancer disease groups and this will have obvious implications in clinical trials design and conception in the next future.

The Future of Chemotherapy in the Era of Personalized Medicine

DIECI, MARIA VITTORIA;GUARNERI, VALENTINA;CONTE, PIERFRANCO
2013

Abstract

Chemotherapy still represents the mainstay of therapy for many breast cancer patients. Indeed, it is the only available option for the treatment of triple-negative disease. Moreover, targeted agents, in particular anti-HER2 compounds, show the highest efficacy when combined with chemotherapy. Research efforts should therefore continue to investigate new chemotherapeutic drugs, with the attempt to increase efficacy and reduce toxicity. Similarly to targeted drugs, cytotoxic compounds should be developed in the context of personalized medicine, by adopting tools including high-throughput technologies to select sensitive patient subsets. Indeed, it seems clear by now that great advances in the general, unselected breast cancer population are no longer possible. The attention has to be moved to smaller breast cancer disease groups and this will have obvious implications in clinical trials design and conception in the next future.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11577/2578088
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