Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer ranks as the second most common cause of cancer death among women in the United States. Anticancer agents are an important component of breast cancer therapy. Drugs frequently used to treat breast cancer include methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cyclophosphamide, anthracyclines, taxanes, trastuzumab, tamoxifen, and aromatase inhibitors. These agents inhibit breast cancer progression by a variety of different mechanisms. More than 210,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year reported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2006. Approximately one in seven women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime reported by Jemal et al. (2004). Breast cancer is the cause of death of over 40,000 women in the United States each year, which ranks it as the second most common cause of cancer death among women. Many drugs have been demonstrated to extend survival of breast cancer patients. Anticancer agents frequently used to treat breast cancer include methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil (5FU), cyclophosphamide, anthracyclines, taxanes, trastuzumab, tamoxifen, and aromatase inhibitors. Mechanisms by which these agents inhibit breast cancer progression vary from drug to drug.