Introduction to Breast Cancer and Drug Resistance

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women, worldwide. Thus, it has attained the number one spot as the most diagnosed cancer in most regions across the world. It is also the cancer with the highest mortality rates for women, worldwide. The soaring incidence, mortality, and recurrence rates can be partly attributed to late diagnosis and resistance to the current treatment strategies. These treatment regimens include chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, endocrine therapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. However, common mechanisms have evolved in cancers to counteract these treatments, resulting in cancer drug resistance. Resistance to treatment results in higher recurrence rates and increased mortality. These mechanisms can be targeted to reverse this resistance. Moreover, multiple treatments can be employed in order to bypass resistance. In addition to this, biomarkers for the development of resistance can be employed to detect the development of resistance at the early stages, allowing for treatments to be altered or supplemented with other drugs or treatments. There are also revolutionary treatments being developed to counteract resistance. These include the use of natural products to target novel pathways in cancer and be used to supplement other treatments. Nanomedicine and nanoparticles have been developed to assist in drug delivery. The more refined and precise delivery of drugs offered by nanotechnology can ensure efficient drug uptake and minimize efflux. Lastly, the development of personalized medicine, which is made possible using artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze large omics databases, means that more precise customized treatments can be applied specifically to suit a single patient which may lower the chance of the development or resistance. Personalized medicine will allow the detection of gene expression or pathway changes that will increase the chance of resistance development, which would allow for more appropriate therapies to be selected.