ecancermedicalscience

Special Issue

Breast cancer brain metastases: new directions in systemic therapy

18 Apr 2013
Nancy U Lin

The management of patients with brain metastases from breast cancer continues to be a major clinical challenge. The standard initial therapeutic approach depends upon the size, location, and number of metastatic lesions and includes consideration of surgical resection, whole-brain radiotherapy, and stereotactic radiosurgery. As systemic therapies for control of extracranial disease improve, patients are surviving long enough to experience subsequent progression events in the brain. Therefore, there is an increasing need to identify both more effective initial treatments as well as to develop multiple lines of salvage treatments for patients with breast cancer brain metastases. This review summarises the clinical experience to date with respect to cytotoxic and targeted systemic therapies for the treatment of brain metastases, highlights ongoing and planned trials of novel approaches and identifies potential targets for future investigation.

Related Articles

Tooba Ali, Nasir Ali, Syed Aun Hasan, Nawazish Zehra, Laraib Khan, Maham Khan, Mariam Hina, Bilal Ahmed, Fabiha Shakeel, Ahmed Nadeem Abbasi, Bilal Mazhar Qureshi, Asim Hafiz, Maria Tariq, Sehrish Abrar
Cassio Murilo Hidalgo Filho, Mateus Marinho Nogueira Soares, Wesley Antonio Lopes de Lima, Laura Testa, Marcela Simonis Martins Ferrari, Renata Colombo Bonadio
Deevyashali Parekh, Ansy H Patel, Areeb Khan, Eloho Olojakpoke, Ashay Karpe, Zoya Peelay, Vijay Patil
Eduardo Cazap, Benjamin O Anderson, Giuseppe Curigliano, Sandeep Sehdev, Fatima Cardoso, Ana Rita Gonzalez, Emad Shash, Cheng-Har Yip, André Mattar, Yanin Chavarri-Guerra, Miriam Mutebi, Yongmei Yin, João Victor Rocha, Ilaria Lucibello, Namita Srivastava