New Therapeutic Approaches, Biomarkers for Diagnosis, Prognosis and Therapy Prediction in Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Recurrence

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last two decades, the tumor recurrence has become a worldwide problem of high scientific and clinical interest. The clinical data show that nearly 30% of breast cancer patients undergo recurrence during follow-up.

The latest scientific evidence shows that breast cancer recurrence times vary considerably, influenced by classical prognostic factors and adjuvant treatment strategies. More precisely, the state of the estrogen receptor (ER) provides a clinically useful distinction as recurrences in patients with ER-negative disease occur earlier during follow-up, while in those with ER-positive disease, relapses continue to occur later in follow-up. The late relapses evident in ER-positive disease suggest that the mechanisms related to disease recurrence are different from the disease itself, in which cancer cells can remain dormant for an extended period of time, despite adjuvant therapies.

In fact, the phenomenon of resistance to adjuvant therapies of this small population of cancer cells is the subject of numerous scientific studies, where many scientists are investigating the metabolic and microenvironmental changes in the various models in order to understand the disease recurrence mechanisms, discover new biomarkers for the early detection of breast cancer relapse, and predict treatment efficacy.

However, despite these efforts, the incidence of breast cancer recurrence is currently increasing because of the ability of breast cancer cells to become resistant to the common therapies, resulting in a strong increase in metastatic capacity.

In this Special Issue, we will focus on generating better models of relapse, resulting in a more complete understanding of the metabolic and regulatory mechanisms of drug resistance, the role of the microenvironment in breast cancer, the role of genetic predisposition in the control and prognosis of breast cancer, and other molecular differences that could lead to the development and discovery of  new targeted biomarkers and therapeutic approaches that offer a unique opportunity to better define the patterns of late recurrence in breast cancer.

Dr. Marco Fiorillo
Guest Editor

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