TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategies for the discovery and development of therapies for metastatic breast cancer
AU - Eckhardt, Bedrich L.
AU - Francis, Prudence A.
AU - Parker, Belinda S.
AU - Anderson, Robin L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Fellowship support from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (B.S.P.), from the National Breast Cancer Foundation (R.L.A.) and from Susan G. Komen for the Cure (B.L.E.) is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - Nearly all deaths caused by solid cancers occur as a result of metastasis - the formation of secondary tumours in distant organs such as the lungs, liver, brain and bone. A major obstruction to the development of drugs with anti-metastatic efficacy is our fragmented understanding of how tumours 'evolve' and metastasize, at both the biological and genetic levels. Furthermore, although there is significant overlap in the metastatic process among different types of cancer, there are also marked differences in the propensity to metastasize, the extent of metastasis, the sites to which the tumour metastasizes, the kinetics of the process and the mechanisms involved. Here, we consider the case of breast cancer, which has some marked distinguishing features compared with other types of cancer. Considerable progress has been made in the development of preclinical models and in the identification of relevant signalling pathways and genetic regulators of metastatic breast cancer, and we discuss how these might facilitate the development of novel targeted anti-metastatic drugs.
AB - Nearly all deaths caused by solid cancers occur as a result of metastasis - the formation of secondary tumours in distant organs such as the lungs, liver, brain and bone. A major obstruction to the development of drugs with anti-metastatic efficacy is our fragmented understanding of how tumours 'evolve' and metastasize, at both the biological and genetic levels. Furthermore, although there is significant overlap in the metastatic process among different types of cancer, there are also marked differences in the propensity to metastasize, the extent of metastasis, the sites to which the tumour metastasizes, the kinetics of the process and the mechanisms involved. Here, we consider the case of breast cancer, which has some marked distinguishing features compared with other types of cancer. Considerable progress has been made in the development of preclinical models and in the identification of relevant signalling pathways and genetic regulators of metastatic breast cancer, and we discuss how these might facilitate the development of novel targeted anti-metastatic drugs.
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U2 - 10.1038/nrd2372
DO - 10.1038/nrd2372
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22653217
AN - SCOPUS:84861880572
SN - 1474-1776
VL - 11
SP - 479
EP - 497
JO - Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
JF - Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
IS - 6
ER -