Breast Cancer Update 2014 - Focus on the Patient and the Tumour

The therapy for patients with breast cancer has developed markedly in the past ten years. Our understanding of the molecular biology of tumours and the characteristics of the patients has shaped the recent advances. In this review we present the latest knowledge about the therapy for breast cancer. There are new tests and options not only in the field of anti-HER2 therapy but also in the management of triple negative and hormone receptor-positive patients. Comprehension of prognosis and therapeutic response to chemotherapies is little by little helping to define patient groups who will not respond to chemotherapy or who do not need treatment because their prognosis is extremely good. In the field of anti-HER2 therapy, work is continuing on the development of drugs suitable for and able to overcome trastuzumab resistance. For hormone receptor-positive cancers, we now have a better understanding of which therapy groups will benefit from which anti-endocrine drugs, and which will be able to overcome a possible resistance (treatment of the PI3K pathways, inhibition of the cell cycle). Molecular tests are still being evaluated with regard to the clinical situations in which they may have the greatest relevance for therapeutic decision-making; however, evidence is also increasing as to the fields in which good predictions for the prognosis can be obtained. On the whole, more work is needed to promote our understanding of the new developments in diagnostics and therapy and to involve both physicians and patients equally in the procedures.