Dominika Kunachowicz, Monika Birska, Karolina Kłosowska, Martyna Kotarba, Katarzyna Karłowicz-Bodalska
Recent progress in the development of therapies targeting molecular factors in breast cancer
2024-07-25
Efficient treatment of cancerous diseases still remains a challenge for the modern medicine, especially in the light of constant rise in the incidence of cancers. The most common malignancy in women, with one of the highest mortality rate, is breast cancer (BC). Breast cancers are characterized by a distinct course and different responses to treatment, what is more, their heterogeneity promotes development of drug resistance and formation of metastases. Together with the low specificity of medications currently used against cancer cells, which cause numerous side effects, all these factors significantly reduce patients’ quality of life. Therefore, to effectively treat BC, new therapeutic strategies with a more favorable safety profile and higher selectivity should be developed.
In rapidly dividing tumorigenic cells, numerous signal transduction pathways that regulate the cell cycle, cell growth and proliferation are modified. Cancer cells overexpress specific factors – e.g., receptors, signaling proteins, transcription factors – involved in tumor progression, which in normal cells are less abundant or inactive. Therefore, these factors could serve as molecular targets for modern therapies of various breast cancer types and stages. Such targeted therapies, which inhibit tumor growth by disrupting the functionality of specific biomolecules responsible for its progression, are at the core of modern treatment strategies. Advantages of targeted therapies include their increased efficacy with a concurrent reduction of their aggressiveness, which is particularly important in advanced or metastatic breast cancers. It emphasizes the urgent need to search for new drug targets, as conducted in numerous research studies.
The aim of the study is to present the current state of knowledge concerning molecular factors indicated as targets of modern BC therapeutic strategies. Therefore, to analyze this topic, a literature review of publications indexed in the Medline and Web of Science databases covering the years 2013–2024 was performed. The search of relevant articles was performed between November 2023 and February 2024, with the use of the following keywords: “breast cancer”, “molecular targets”, “breast cancer treatment”, “targeted therapies”, “signaling inhibitors”, “cancer associated fibroblasts”, and “non-coding RNA”. This methodology allowed for finding up-to-date, reliable information in original and review articles. Afterwards, the publication was divided into chapters, which were assigned to individual authors.
The results of preclinical and clinical studies presented in this manuscript indicate that inhibiting proteins and signaling pathways that stimulate the growth and division of cancer cells is an appropriate strategy, opening prospects for improving anticancer therapies, including the treatment of aggressive forms of BC. Based on the research reports, it is predicted that the introduction of new drugs targeting specific biomolecules into clinical use will increase the effectiveness and selectivity of BC treatment. This publication expands the current knowledge on the state of progress in the development of modern targeted therapies for use in breast cancer and is an important compilation of the current literature on the subject in Polish.
Keywords: breast cancer, targeted therapy, molecular targets, cancer cell markers, non-coding RNA.
© Farm Pol, 2024, 80(3): 189–204