Breast cancer in the personal genomics era.

ABSTRACT: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with a complex etiology that develops from different cellular lineages, progresses along multiple molecular pathways, and demonstrates wide variability in response to treatment. The "standard of care" approach to breast cancer treatment in which all patients receive similar interventions is rapidly being replaced by personalized medicine, based on molecular characteristics of individual patients. Both inherited and somatic genomic variation is providing useful information for customizing treatment regimens for breast cancer to maximize efficacy and minimize adverse side effects. In this article, we review (1) hereditary breast cancer and current use of inherited susceptibility genes in patient management; (2) the potential of newly-identified breast

SUBMITTER: Ellsworth RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2878980 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature