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Review
. 2023 Apr 14;15(4):1242.
doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15041242.

Advances in Targeted Therapy of Breast Cancer with Antibody-Drug Conjugate

Md Abdus Subhan  1 , Vladimir P Torchilin  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Advances in Targeted Therapy of Breast Cancer with Antibody-Drug Conjugate

Md Abdus Subhan et al. Pharmaceutics. .

Abstract

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a potential and promising therapy for a wide variety of cancers, including breast cancer. ADC-based drugs represent a rapidly growing field of breast cancer therapy. Various ADC drug therapies have progressed over the past decade and have generated diverse opportunities for designing of state-of-the-art ADCs. Clinical progress with ADCs for the targeted therapy of breast cancer have shown promise. Off-target toxicities and drug resistance to ADC-based therapy have hampered effective therapy development due to the intracellular mechanism of action and limited antigen expression on breast tumors. However, innovative non-internalizing ADCs targeting the tumor microenvironment (TME) component and extracellular payload delivery mechanisms have led to reduced drug resistance and enhanced ADC effectiveness. Novel ADC drugs may deliver potent cytotoxic agents to breast tumor cells with reduced off-target effects, which may overcome difficulties related to delivery efficiency and enhance the therapeutic efficacy of cytotoxic cancer drugs for breast cancer therapy. This review discusses the development of ADC-based targeted breast cancer therapy and the clinical translation of ADC drugs for breast cancer treatment.

Keywords: ADCs; breast cancer; drug resistance; non-internalizing ADCs; targeted therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mechanism of action of ADC drugs. Adapted from [2].
Figure 2
Figure 2
ADCs in clinical trials for cancer therapy. Adapted from [9].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Growing the ADC framework through the utilization of new mAb, conjugation methods, linkers and spacer systems to optimize safety and effectiveness of ADCs for cancer therapy. Adapted from [9].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Internalizing versus non-internalizing mechanism. Adapted from in modified form [8].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mechanism of action of Ladrituzumab Vedotin. adapted from [92].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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