Breast Cancer – Diagnosis and Treatment Prolonging Life: A Review

Abstract

Breast cancer is a malignant tumour that starts either in the ducts or lobules, this can be generally differentiated as either in situ or invasive (in filtering) type. It is expected that in 2014 every 1 in 8 women are likely to develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime when compared to a decade back where an average of 1 in 10 was seen. With this increase, breast cancer alone, roughly accounts for 25 to 30% of new cancer cases this year. Despite such diagnostic statistics, there are millions of survivors across the globe and this increasing rate can be attributed to the tremendous increase in advances in treatment and also early diagnosis. New drug delivery carriers like nanoparticles, liposomes, monoclonal antibodies, etc. are being used to improve the efficacy of therapy and for site specific delivery to reduce side effects. As a result of the constant effort by researchers, today the commercial market has a range of products apart from the conventional dosage forms like Herceptin (trastuzumab), a monoclonal antibody; the others in this class are Pertuzumab (Perjeta), Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine) used for targeted delivery; Myocet (doxorubicin), a liposomal formulation and Paclitaxel nanoparticles all these are available as injections via intravenous route or infusion in few cases. There are yet certain other promising technologies like magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia and cMethDNA assay a very assuring method to monitor recurrence of breast cancer by a simple blood test. This review will focus on the description of disease, diagnosis, current treatment therapies and ongoing research to provide better facilities.