Cell-specific biomarkers and targeted biopharmaceuticals for breast cancer treatment

Abstract

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women, and its related treatment has been attracting significant attention over the past decades. Among the various treatments, targeted therapy has shown great promise as a precision treatment, by binding to cancer cell-specific biomarkers. So far, great achievements have been made in targeted therapy of breast cancer. In this review, we first discuss cell-specific biomarkers, which are not only useful for classification of breast cancer subtyping but also can be utilized as goals for targeted therapy. Then, the innovative and generic-targeted biopharmaceuticals for breast cancer, including monoclonal antibodies, non-antibody proteins and small molecule drugs, are reviewed. Finally, we provide our outlook on future developments of biopharmaceuticals, and provide solutions to problems in this field.

Figure 1

Molecular mechanisms of novel biopharmaceuticals for HER2‐targeted therapy. Reprinted with permission from reference 26. Copyright@ Nature Publishing Group

Figure 2

Schematic of novel anti‐angiogenesis biopharmaceuticals targeting VEGF pathways in breast cancer. Reprinted with permission from reference 86. Copyright@ Informa Healthcare