Breast Cancer: Understanding the Challenges and Emerging Solutions

Strategic Insights -

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide, with over 2 million cases diagnosed in 2022. It is a complex and heterogeneous disease, making treatment challenging. Physiologist Anna-Mart Engelbrecht explains why breast cancer is difficult to treat and how precision medicine is offering new hope for patients. Breast cancer cells can evade the immune system, create their own blood supply, and adapt to survive under different conditions, including treatment pressure. The disease is also characterized by numerous subtypes with unique genetic and molecular characteristics, requiring tailored approaches for each patient.

Key Takeaways:

  • Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, with over 2 million cases diagnosed worldwide in 2022.
  • The disease is characterized by various subtypes, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
  • Breast cancer cells can evade the immune system, create their own blood supply, and adapt to survive under different conditions, including treatment pressure.
  • The tumor microenvironment plays a crucial role in shaping tumour behaviour and making treatment less effective.
  • Drug resistance and metastasis are major hurdles in breast cancer treatment.
  • Immunotherapy has shown some success in treating breast cancer, but its effectiveness varies greatly between patients.
  • Precision medicine takes into account the genes, environment, and lifestyle of each person and tailors treatments to a tumour's genetic and molecular characteristics.
  • Ongoing monitoring through techniques like liquid biopsies allows treatment strategies to be adapted as the tumour evolves.

Statistics:

  • 2 million cases of breast cancer were diagnosed worldwide in 2022 (Source: World Health Organization).
  • 5-10% of all cancers arise from germline mutations (Source: Anna-Mart Engelbrecht).
  • Immunotherapy has shown success in treating various cancers, including melanoma (40-50% response rate) and non-small cell lung cancer (20-30% response rate) (Source: The Conversation).
  • Liquid biopsies are used to monitor tumour evolution and adapt treatment strategies (Source: Anna-Mart Engelbrecht).

Sources:

  • World Health Organization (2022).
  • Anna-Mart Engelbrecht, Professor in physiological sciences, Stellenbosch University (Source: The Conversation).
  • The Conversation -- Africa -- By Anna-Mart Engelbrecht, Professor in physiological sciences, Stellenbosch University