State of the art therapy for HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer

Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains a challenging disease to treat with only a small minority of patients achieving long-term survival. Although great strides have been made in the fight against breast cancer, international consensus to the approach to treat the disease is lacking. Over the past few decades, the introduction of several new agents, including biologically-targeted agents, have impacted disease control as well as survival, albeit modestly. Despite these advances, treatment for the majority of breast cancer remains empirically based, especially in the approach to HER2-negative, endocrine non-sensitive disease. Taxane- and anthracycline-containing regimens continue to be a mainstay of MBC therapy; however, increasing use of these agents in the adjuvant and neoadjuvant settings provides a challenge for the treating oncologist. As such, this review will focus on state of the art therapy for patients with endocrine non-sensitive, HER2-negative MBC, highlighting recent advances offering new treatment paradigms.