Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Aug:82:104488.
doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2025.104488. Epub 2025 May 8.

Advancing breast cancer therapy in the era of molecular diagnostics

Maria Grazia Carnevale  1 , Riccardo Ray Colciago  2 , Maria Carmen De Santis  1 , Laura Cortesi  3 , Cinzia De Marco  1 , Antonio Marra  4 , Andrea Vingiani  1 , Franco Nolè  4 , Giuseppe Curigliano  5 , Giancarlo Pruneri  6 , Antonio Llombart-Cussac  7 , Serena Di Cosimo  8 , Javier Cortes  9
Affiliations
Review

Advancing breast cancer therapy in the era of molecular diagnostics

Maria Grazia Carnevale et al. Breast. 2025 Aug.

Abstract

Advances in cancer biology and drug development now enable treatments tailored to individual tumor profile. Targeting specific molecular alterations marked a significant step forward in cancer care, including breast cancer. Access to these therapies is improving thanks to the implementation of molecular tumor boards and efforts to provide molecular diagnostics at sustainable costs for all. In this context, we highlight recent progress in breast cancer therapy, focusing on biomarker-driven approaches, immunotherapy, and precision medicine paving the way for increasingly personalized and effective options.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Breast cancer; Molecularly-informed therapy; Mutations; Precision medicine; Targeted therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest Serena Di Cosimo: institutional grant: IG 20774 from Fondazione Associazione Italiana Ricerca contro il Cancro (AIRC); Cancer Can.Heal European EU4 Health Programme 101080009 from European Commission; medical monitoring: Medica Scientia Innovation Research (MEDSIR), Barcelona (Spain); advisory board: Pfizer; travel grant: Daiichi Sankyo; Giuseppe Curigliano: speaker bureau: Roche, Seattle Genetics, Novartis, Lilly, Pfizer, Foundation Medicine, NanoString, Samsung, Celltrion, BMS, MSD; consultancy: Roche, Seattle Genetics, NanoString; advisory board: Roche, Lilly, Pfizer, Foundation Medicine, Samsung, Celltrion, Mylan; writing engagement: Novartis, BMS; participation in Ellipsis Scientific Affairs Group; institutional research funding for conducting phase I and II clinical trials: Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, Sanofi, Celgene, Servier, Orion, AstraZeneca, Seattle Genetics, AbbVie, Tesaro, BMS, Merck Serono, Merck Sharp Dome, Janssen-Cilag, Philogen, Bayer, Medivation, Medimmune. Javier Cortes: consultant/advisor for Roche, Celgene, Cellestia, AstraZeneca, Seattle Genetics, Daiichi Sankyo, Erytech, Athenex, Polyphor, Lilly, Merck Sharp & Dohme, GSK, Leuko, Bioasis, Clovis Oncology, Boehringer Ingelheim, Ellipses, HiberCell, BioInvent, GEMoaB, Gilead, Menarini, Zymeworks, Reveal Genomics and Expres2ion Biotechnologies; honoraria from Roche, Novartis, Celgene, Eisai, Pfizer, Samsung Bioepis, Lilly, Merck Sharp & Dohme and Daiichi Sankyo; institutional research funding from Roche, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Baxalta/Servier Affaires, Bayer Healthcare, Eisai, F. Hoffman-La Roche, Guardant Health, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Pfizer, PIQUR Therapeutics, Puma C and Queen Mary University of London; holding stock in MEDSIR, Nektar Pharmaceuticals and Leuko (relative); travel and accommodation expenses from Roche, Novartis, Eisai, Pfizer, Daiichi Sankyo, AstraZeneca and Gilead; and holding patents, including one for pharmaceutical combinations of a PI3K inhibitor and a microtubule destabilizing agent (US 2019/0338368 A1); Giancarlo Pruneri: speaker honoraria/advisory board: ADS Biotec, Exact Sciences, Lilly, Novartis, and Roche; institutional research grant from Roche; Laura Cortesi: speaker bureau: AstraZeneca, MSD, Pfizer, Novartis, Gilead, Roche, Daiichi Sankyo; advisory board: AstraZeneca, MSD, Novartis; travel and accommodation expenses from Gilead, Pfizer, Daiichi Sankyo; Antonio Llombart-Cussac: leadership roles at Eisai, Celgene, Lilly, Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, and MSD; intellectual property for MEDSIR and Initia Research; consulting roles for Lilly, Roche, Pfizer, Novartis, Pierre Fabre, GenomicHealth, and GSK; speakers bureau for Lilly, AstraZeneca, and MSD; research funding from Roche, Foundation Medicine, Pierre Fabre, and Agendia; and travel expenses from Roche, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca.The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.Given her role as Editorial Board Member, Serena Di Cosimo had no involvement in the peer-review of this article and had no access to information regarding its peer review.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Precision medicine in breast cancer - The graph illustrates the novel approach to breast cancer patients based on molecular diagnostics to assign individual matched therapies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Arnold M., Morgan E., Rumgay H., et al. Current and future burden of breast cancer: global statistics for 2020 and 2040. Breast. 2022;66:15–23. doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2022.08.010. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Perou C.M., Sørlie T., Eisen M.B., et al. Molecular portraits of human breast tumours. Nature. 2000;406(6797):747–752. doi: 10.1038/35021093. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Maisonneuve P., Disalvatore D., Rotmensz N., et al. Proposed new clinicopathological surrogate definitions of luminal A and luminal B (HER2-negative) intrinsic breast cancer subtypes. Breast Cancer Res. 2014;16(5) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Loibl S., Poortmans P., Morrow M., Denkert C., Curigliano G. Breast cancer. Lancet. 2021;397:1750–1769. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32381-3. 10286. - DOI - PubMed
    1. van Geelen C.T., Savas P., Teo Z.L., et al. Clinical implications of prospective genomic profiling of metastatic breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Res. 2020;22:91. doi: 10.1186/s13058-020-01316-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances