The Dawning of Translational Breast Cancer: From Bench to Bedside

Breast cancer is one of the world's leading causes of death in women. Although tumor initiation and progression are predominantly driven by somatic or acquired (epi) genetic alterations that govern signaling abnormalities, growing evidence suggests that the inflammatory microenvironments of cancer also play a role. Molecular characterization of breast cancer biology is essential for high-efficient management of this disease in clinical practice. Translating basic research into clinically valuable biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction of response to treatment and into precisely targeted therapies is crucial for the development of precision medicine in breast cancer. Such a process is known as "from bench to bedside." In this chapter, we will present an overview of breast cancer pathogenesis and selected translational advances in multistage clinical settings and aim to illustrate the dawning of precision medicine implementation in managing human breast malignancies.