Translational breast cancer research: recent advances through the lens of experimental radiotherapy

Enormous efforts are currently put forth in translational breast cancer research. These efforts are directed to both the development of new drugs and the implementation of novel techniques of local treatment, including radiotherapy. This latter discipline is actually a particularly fertile ground for translational research, since scientists and clinicians are developing novel tools in biology and radiation physics, which reduce the gap between the lab and the clinic, and identify innovative strategies that one didn't even dream, only a few years ago. Nowadays the most recent advances in translational breast cancer research are articulated, in radiation science, around three main domains, namely molecular biology, experimental models for tumour growth and response to treatment, and mechanisms underlying levels of malignant and normal cell radio-sensitivity/radio-resistance. In an attempt to put into perspective what could be the breast cancer radiotherapy of the next decade, these three domains are reviewed and discussed in the present article, at the light of ongoing, "from bench to bedside" studies.