Breast Cancer and Chemotherapeutic Drug Resistance: A Treatment Challenge

Breast cancer is a commonly occurring malignancy and leading cause of cancer associated deaths in women globally. It is estimated that 1.7 million new cases (25% of all types of cancers) with 521,900 death in year 2012. There are multiple risk factors associated with breast cancer in women but breast density, genetic tendency, age and estrogen dysregulation are notable. Breast cancer is a heterogeneous ailment caused by common effect of hereditary and ecological variables. Thorough understanding of breast cancer etiology results in the development of molecularly targeted novel therapies. The clinical utility of chemotherapy is based on multiple factors which include tumor size, involvement of lymph node, and presence of hormonal receptors including estrogen, progesterone and HER2. Drug resistance is one of the leading problems in cancer chemotherapy, especially in case of breast cancers. To this end, several ongoing trials are examining novel combinations of drugs that are intended to target key signaling pathways involved in in the progression of disease. These improvements in therapy will potentially overcome drug resistance in breast cancer patients. As well as, identifying other biomarkers and potential drug targets may further lead to develop new chemotherapy combinations that will eventually extend the efficacy of these combine therapies.