In the last couple of decades, the study of the cancer genome and the progressive implementation of next-generation sequencing platforms have provided the Scientific and Oncology communities with a multitude of data, technologies, diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive tools that have been revolutionizing the way we can study, diagnose and treat cancer, including breast tumors. For example, genomic tests can now refine the prognosis of early-stage breast cancer patients beyond standard clinicopathological features and help guide escalated or de-escalated treatment choices. The identification of the molecular intrinsic subtypes might also be helpful in guiding treatment choices in advanced hormone receptor-positive disease. The identification of germline mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 has led to the development and introduction of PARP inhibitors for the treatment of advanced and early-stage breast cancer, along with personalized follow-up and prophylactic surgical procedures for patients with or without cancer, carrying such mutations.
However, not all that glitters is gold. Although giant steps have been made to transfer knowledge advances in cancer genomics to the clinic, costs, technical difficulties, limitations in clinical trial designs and simple lack of knowledge have circumscribed precision oncology advances to a limited number of countries, if not institutions, and to relatively limited diagnostic and therapeutic scenarios. Much research is still needed to truly develop a broad personalized molecularly-driven approach to the clinical management of patients affected by breast tumors. For these reasons, this collection is focused on cutting-edge basic, translational or clinical research that might provide further relevant advances in the molecular diagnostic and therapeutic fields of breast cancer.
Novel studies regarding the discovery, preliminarily or definitive validation of molecular
diagnostic and/or prognostic tools, as well as predictive biomarkers of response to targeted therapeutics in breast cancer, will be the main focus of this Research Topic. At the same time, reviews and perspectives from renowned experts in the field of precision medicine, molecular biomarker, and targeted therapeutics development will provide authoritative state-of-the-art recapitulations, insights, and future perspectives in the field of molecular prognostic and predictive biomarkers of response in breast tumors. We welcome Original Research, Case reports (only real and representative cases of molecular precision oncology, including cases with uncommon and exceptional response results, which could provide an educational forum regarding targeted breast cancer therapy), Perspectives, Reviews, with or without meta-analysis, and mini-reviews.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.
In the last couple of decades, the study of the cancer genome and the progressive implementation of next-generation sequencing platforms have provided the Scientific and Oncology communities with a multitude of data, technologies, diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive tools that have been revolutionizing the way we can study, diagnose and treat cancer, including breast tumors. For example, genomic tests can now refine the prognosis of early-stage breast cancer patients beyond standard clinicopathological features and help guide escalated or de-escalated treatment choices. The identification of the molecular intrinsic subtypes might also be helpful in guiding treatment choices in advanced hormone receptor-positive disease. The identification of germline mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 has led to the development and introduction of PARP inhibitors for the treatment of advanced and early-stage breast cancer, along with personalized follow-up and prophylactic surgical procedures for patients with or without cancer, carrying such mutations.
However, not all that glitters is gold. Although giant steps have been made to transfer knowledge advances in cancer genomics to the clinic, costs, technical difficulties, limitations in clinical trial designs and simple lack of knowledge have circumscribed precision oncology advances to a limited number of countries, if not institutions, and to relatively limited diagnostic and therapeutic scenarios. Much research is still needed to truly develop a broad personalized molecularly-driven approach to the clinical management of patients affected by breast tumors. For these reasons, this collection is focused on cutting-edge basic, translational or clinical research that might provide further relevant advances in the molecular diagnostic and therapeutic fields of breast cancer.
Novel studies regarding the discovery, preliminarily or definitive validation of molecular
diagnostic and/or prognostic tools, as well as predictive biomarkers of response to targeted therapeutics in breast cancer, will be the main focus of this Research Topic. At the same time, reviews and perspectives from renowned experts in the field of precision medicine, molecular biomarker, and targeted therapeutics development will provide authoritative state-of-the-art recapitulations, insights, and future perspectives in the field of molecular prognostic and predictive biomarkers of response in breast tumors. We welcome Original Research, Case reports (only real and representative cases of molecular precision oncology, including cases with uncommon and exceptional response results, which could provide an educational forum regarding targeted breast cancer therapy), Perspectives, Reviews, with or without meta-analysis, and mini-reviews.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.