About this Research Topic

Background

Breast cancer (BC) represents the first most prevalent neoplasm worldwide and one of the leading causes of death in the female gender. The treatment landscape of BC is constantly evolving, with pharmacological interventions that helped reach impressive results both in early and advanced settings.

Beside the classic division into specific molecular subtypes that helps clinicians choose the best treatment for BC patients, new promising molecular features are now under evaluation to further implement survival outcomes of this wide spectrum of clearly different diseases (e.g. PDL1 expression, PI3K alterations, ESR1 mutations among others). Moreover, prognostic and predictive tests recently provided information on how to tailor a patient’s treatment in the early setting (e.g.Oncotype DX, Endopredict, Prosigna, Mammaprint).

The escalating number of available treatments sparks a discussion on planning the optimal therapeutic sequence. In the future, multiple approved agents for the same treatment setting may coexist, prompting a potential source of discussion and debate. As survival outcomes became increasingly important, a growing attention for quality of life and supportive care is now evident. Tailoring a multidisciplinary approach that is focused on the patient’s care instead of disease treatment is now possible, and should be further implemented.

The aim of this research is to gather manuscripts centered around multidisciplinary approaches in the treatment of advanced breast cancer. These approaches encompass not only oncologists, surgeons, and radiotherapists, but also incorporate rehabilitation, nutrition, alternative medicine, and mental well-being aspects for our patients. While emphasizing oncologic themes and treatment sequence planning, it is crucial to consistently acknowledge that involving various specialists at every stage of the patients’ treatment journey is essential for shaping their overall quality of life.

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.

Keywords: Breast cancer, multidisciplinary, quality of life, tailored treatment, personalized medicine, genomics, advanced cancer

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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