Current and emerging breast cancer biomarkers

Abstract

Breast cancer treatment has experienced several advancements in the past few decades with the discovery of specific predictive and prognostic biomarkers that make possible the application of individualized therapies. In addition to traditional prognostic factors of breast carcinoma, molecular biomarkers have played a significant role in tumor prediction and treatment. The most frequent genetic alterations of breast cancer are gained along chromosome 1q, 8q, 17q, 20q, and 11q and losses along 8p, 13q, 16q, 18q, and 11q. Interestingly, many of these chromosomal fragments harbor known proto oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes such as BRCA1, BRCA2, p53, HER2-neu, cyclin D1, and cyclin E, which are briefly described in this review.