Breast Cancer: Targets and Therapy

Targeting Stem Cells for Breast Cancer Therapy

In the past four decades, an improved survival rate in breast cancer patients has been witnessed, largely due to early diagnosis and the advent of new targeted therapies. However, the increase in cancer-specific survival seems to have reached a plateau in 2005. Tumor recurrence and relapse are the major clinical challenges in treatment of breast cancer patients. Since breast cancer stem cells (CSCs) were first identified in 2003, they have been considered promising therapeutic targets for cancer therapy. CSCs are a small population of cancer cells which are thought to be responsible for tumor initiation, progression, recurrence, and more importantly drug resistance. This Article Collection collects the most recent progress made by multidisciplinary researchers in tackling the key challenges in development of breast CSCs-targeted therapies which include, but are not limited to, differentiation therapy, nano-drug delivery and targeted therapy, immunotherapy and epigenetic modification and blockades of microenvironmental cues.