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J Med Oncl Ther 2017 | Volume 2 Issue 3
Breast Cancer November 01-02, 2017 | Toronto, Canada
7th World Congress on
Cancer, per se, remains one of the most challenging
diseases to treat. Indeed, breast cancer is the second
leading cause of death among women affecting 1 in 8 women
in the USA and the most common cancer among women
worldwide. Despite increases in the number of people
surviving cancer, there yet exists a vast rift in the number
who died each year, despite excepted standard treatment
regimens. The challenge of standard and generic treatment
modalities, ascribed specifically for the various tumor
types in some measure, undermines the ability to achieve
remission status as there still remains, in 2017, a persistent
and steady risk of recurrence post 5 years of treatment.
Unachievable remission status is also attributed to the
heterogeneity of tumors. Most cancers are monoclonal in
origin however, due to innate genetic instability subsequent
cell generations take on new characteristics, creating a
heterogenic disease well-defined by genetic clonal expansion
complete with epigenetic changes. But, tumors cells are not
the only contributors of tumor heterogeneity, as the entire
micro environmental constituents and its non-tumorous
cells further exert have an absolute influence. Thus, there
exists a reciprocal and dynamic interaction between tumor
cells, microenvironment constituents and non-tumorous
cells that produce a well-defined individualized tumor
phenotype. The clinical relevance is that the tumor and its
micro environmental components contribute significantly
to the efficacy of chemotherapy. Further, drug transporter
genetic variants cause population-specific differences in
drug transport and therefore impart considerable inter-
individual variation in pharmacotherapy and thus clinical
response to a myriad of agents. This divergence underscores
the necessity of personalizing medicine wherein the data
garnered from a person’s own cancer is utilized to develop a
highly individualized therapeutic regimen that encompasses
the totality of the tumor mass. This commentary provides
an assessment on the advent, progression, challenges and
opportunities of one lab’s capability to establish an in-
vitro assay with the adeptness to predict in-vivo response.
A perspective on how to improve prudence and pioneer
cancer treatment reforms is presented to provide insight and
provoke ideology.
Speaker Biography
Sherry Bradford has completed her PhD at the New York State University at Buffalo
Medical School/Roswell Park Cancer Institute Division. She is the founder and Chief
Scientific Director of AccuTheranostics, a premier biotechnology research and clinical
laboratory services, located in the heart of Buffalo’s Medical Corridor. She has
published many papers/book chapters, been an invited speaker at many national/
international meetings and is currently serving as an Editorial Board Member of peer-
reviewed journals. She holds two patents and three pending.
e:
Sherry Bradford
AccuTheranostics, USA
Breast cancer and personalized medicine: A perspective on how to improve
prudence and pioneer cancer treatment reforms