Introduction to sessions on Personalising treatment

Excerpt

Survival rates in breast cancer continue to increase in most Western countries. This is undoubtedly underpinned in part by advances in breast cancer therapy and a wider range of treatments. Better surgical techniques and chemotherapeutic regimens, and more specific and potent targeted treatment have all combined to increase therapeutic efficacy while reducing morbidity in the general population of patients with breast cancer. Nevertheless, not all patients experience benefit. Tumours that respond to one form of treatment fail to respond to therapies that are effective in other breast cancers. Similarly, a treatment that overall might produce lower responses can still be extremely effective in a subset of breast cancer patients. Ideally, optimal management would offer the most effective treatment on an individual basis. Improving the tailoring or personalization of treatment, founded upon patient and tumour characteristics, is therefore a major objective of clinical practice and translational research. The current status of personalized treatment was the topic of two meeting sessions. …