Metastatic Heterogeneity of Breast Cancer: Companion and Theranostic Approach in Nuclear Medicine

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women throughout the world. Metastatic dissemination to vital organs is the leading cause of breast cancer-related deaths. The treatment of metastases is mainly based on the primary tumor characteristics. However, breast cancer metastases exhibit high heterogeneity leading to different prognosis and therapeutic responses. Getting access to phenotype of metastases would allow better management of patients. The advent of theranostics in nuclear medicine has opened new opportunities for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of current knowledge and future directions in nuclear medicine for therapeutic management of metastatic breast cancer patients.

Bioinformatics Analysis of Pivotal Module and Biomarkers Related to the Prognosis of Breast Cancer Based on Single-cell Transcriptome Data

“…Cell types and speci c gene expression characteristics in tumor tissues can be accurately distinguished by single-cell transcriptome. In fact, not only breast cancer cells show signi cant heterogeneity, but also non cancer cells are the main content of heterogeneity in breast cancer [15,16]. Non-cancer cells in breast cancer include broblasts, adipocytes, endothelial cells and various immune cells [17].…”

Preclinical Cancer Theranostics—From Nanomaterials to Clinic: The Missing Link

“…Molecular theranostics have been found to offer effective solutions for the identification and treatment of heterogeneous tumors. [ 375–377 ] A major hurdle in the effective management of cancer is the time lag between cancer diagnosis and treatment. By combining these two independent stages into one system, theranostics can provide a better clinicopathological correlation of cancer diagnosis and treatment in terms of the length of these stages.…”

Theranostic Advances in Breast Cancer in Nuclear Medicine

“…Depending on the pathological source of the tumours, liver, lung, bone and brain should be considered as metastatic tissues [ 18 , 19 ]. Against definite opinions of many reports based on that, distant metastases known as secondary or late symptoms of BC, there are evidences that prove that distant metastases could be also an early symptom in some cases [ 20 ]. Early diagnosis may include some contemporary methods such as digital mammography (DM), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and molecular breast imaging (MBI) [ 21 ].…”