Breast cancer

Major advances in all aspects of breast cancer research have been made over the past year, ranging from cancer prevention to the management of patients with advanced disease. Important advances have been reported in the prevention of breast cancer, the identification of risk factors, and in screening methodology. Furthermore, advances have been reported in the discovery and validation of prognostic and predictive molecular markers. Inroads have been made in the identification of active and safe combination regimes for advanced disease both using traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy and the newer targeted drugs trastuzumab and bevacizumab, and in determining the role of adjuvant radiotherapy in elderly patients with hormone sensitive tumours. Key data have also been presented on the role of aromatase inhibitors as endocrine therapy in the management of postmenopausal patients, in addition to seminal data highlighting the role of trastuzumab in the adjuvant setting. In this article, we report key studies presented at major international meetings and in top peer-reviewed journals over the past year. We present this data in context and discuss its current and potential impact.