Functional Genomic Analysis of Breast Cancer Metastasis: Implications for Diagnosis and Therapy

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most diagnosed cancers worldwide and is the second cause of cancer related death in women. The most frequent cause of BC-related deaths, like many cancers, is metastasis. However, metastasis is a complicated and poorly understood process for which there is a shortage of accurate prognostic indicators and effective treatments. With the rapid and ever-evolving development and application of genomic sequencing technologies, many novel molecules were identified that play previously unappreciated and important roles in the various stages of metastasis. In this review, we summarize current advancements in the functional genomic analysis of BC metastasis and discuss about the potential prognostic and therapeutic implications from the recent genomic findings.