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Advances in decoding breast cancer brain metastasis

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Abstract

The past decade has witnessed impressive advances in cancer treatment ushered in by targeted and immunotherapies. However, with significantly prolonged survival, upon recurrence, more patients become inflicted by brain metastasis, which is mostly refractory to all currently available therapeutic regimens. Historically, brain metastasis is an understudied area in cancer research, partly due to the dearth of appropriate experimental models that closely simulate the special biological features of metastasis in the unique brain environment and to the sophistication of techniques required to perform in-depth studies of the extremely complex and challenging brain metastasis. Yet, with increasing clinical demand for more effective treatment options, brain metastasis research has rapidly advanced in recent years. The present review spotlights the recent major progresses in basic and translational studies of brain metastasis with focuses on new animal models, novel imaging technologies, omics “big data” resources, and some new and exciting biological insights on brain metastasis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported partially by R01CA112567-06 (DY), R01CA184836 (DY), METAvivor Research Grant (DY), and China Medical University Research Fund (DY). D. Yu is the Hubert L. & Olive Stringer Distinguished Chair in Basic Science at MDACC.

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  1. Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Chenyu Zhang & Dihua Yu

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Correspondence to Dihua Yu.

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Zhang, C., Yu, D. Advances in decoding breast cancer brain metastasis. Cancer Metastasis Rev 35, 677–684 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10555-016-9638-9

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