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Belizario et al. Cancer Drug Resist 2019;2:527-38 Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/cdr.2018.009 Drug Resistance

Review Open Access

Insights into breast cancer phenotying through
molecular omics approaches and therapy response

Jose E. Belizario , Angela F. Loggulo 2
1
1 Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, Avenida Lineu Prestes, 1524, São Paulo,
CEP 05508-900, Brazil.
2 Department of Pathology, Paulista School of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo, Rua Sena Madureira, 1500, São Paulo,
CEP 04021-001, Brazil.

Correspondence to: Prof. Dr. Jose E. Belizario, Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sao
Paulo, Avenida Lineu Prestes, 1524, Sao Paulo, CEP 05508-900, Brazil. E-mail: jebeliza@usp.br

How to cite this article: Belizario JE, Loggulo AF. Insights into breast cancer phenotying through molecular omics approaches and
therapy response. Cancer Drug Resistance 2019;2:527-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/cdr.2018.009
Received: 18 Dec 2018 First Decision: 8 Mar 2019 Revised: 15 Apr 2019 Accepted: 27 Jun 2019 Published: 19 Sep 2019

Science Editor: Enrico Minin Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the world. Despite advances in early detection and understanding
of the molecular bases of breast cancer biology, approximately 30% of all patients with early-stage breast cancer
have metastatic disease. Breast cancers are comprised of molecularly distinct subtypes that respond differently to
pathway-targeted therapies and neoadjuvant systemic therapy. However, no tumor response is observed in some
cases and development of resistance is most commonly seen in patients with heterogeneous breast cancer subtype.
To offer better treatment with increased efficacy and low toxicity of selecting therapies, new technologies that
incorporate clinical and molecular characteristics of intratumoral heterogeneity have been investigated. This short
review provides some examples of integrative omics approaches (genome, epigenome, transcriptome, immune
profiling) and mathematical/computational analyses that provide mechanistic and clinically relevant insights into
underlying differences in breast cancer subtypes and patients’responses to specific therapies.

Keywords: Breast cancer, ERBB/HER, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, genomics, proteomics, epigenomics,
endocrine and targeted therapy

INTRODUCTION
Cancer is defined as genetic disease and is molecularly characterized by accumulation of mutations and
[1]
epimutations that lead to functional dysregulation of cell genome and epigenome-driven processes .
© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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