Molecular Targets for Breast Cancer Therapy

Authors

Hamidreza Montazeri Aliabadi, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Editorial

Publication Date

9-27-2024

Abstract

"Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer in women, and for a while, it surpassed lung cancer as the most diagnosed cancer, regardless of gender, in 2020 [1]. Chemotherapy and hormone therapy are still the first line of treatment, despite extensive research in molecularly targeted drugs. Therefore, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is still known as the most challenging type for treatment due to the limited identified targets. Inherent and acquired resistance are still major hurdles in breast cancer therapy, which further highlights the importance of identifying new molecular targets in this battle. The inherent resistance of unresponsive cells could be explained by tumor heterogeneity. In a “Big Bang” model proposed in 2015, a “spatial heterogeneity” is illustrated due to consecutive mutations in different generations of cancer cells within a single tumor [2]. This heterogeneity has been demonstrated in a study of two human acute lymphoblastic leukemia samples using viSNE technology, which shows that the differences between the samples outnumber the similarities [3]. Obviously, this intra-tumoral heterogeneity also affects the theory of personalizing the treatment based on the biomarker expression in a specific patient. Even if the selected molecularly targeted drug eradicates all the “sensitive” cells that rely on the targeted molecule for their survival, a sub-population of the population of cells would survive and trigger a relapse [4]. This “Darwinian” model is reported in a variety of cancer types [5]. On the other hand, the plasticity of cancer cells that enables adapting to molecularly targeted drugs could explain the acquired resistance. In addition to point mutations, the availability of a variety of pathways leading to enhanced proliferation and survival could be partially responsible for the intracellular adjustments required. We have previously reported the possibility of overcoming inherent or acquired resistance to molecularly targeted drugs by targeting well-selected alternative proteins. This Special Issue aimed to collect current efforts and insights into the most recent developments in potential molecular targets in breast cancer therapy. The Special Issue presents three original research articles and two review articles."

Comments

This editorial was originally published in Biomolecules, volume 14, in 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom14101219

Recommended Citation

Montazeri Aliabadi, H. Molecular Targets for Breast Cancer Therapy. Biomolecules 2024, 14, 1219. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom14101219

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.