Choice of adjuvant drug therapy on the basis of the molecular classification of breast cancer

Abstract

Molecular genetic analysis identified some biological subtypes of breast cancer (BC): luminal A, luminal B, HER2 positive, and basal-like (including triple negative). The surrogate clinical and morphological criteria including the immunohistochemical determination of estrogen and progesterone receptors, the hyperexpression and/or amplification of HER2, Ki-67, or tumor grade (G) are used to identify the biological subtypes of BC in clinical practice. The biological subtypes are distinguished by their biological course and susceptibility to various systemic treatments, which requires different therapeutic tactics. The paper presents tactics of adjuvant therapy for BC in relation to its biological subtype according to the recommendations of the 12th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference (2011) and considers the place of taxans