Breast cancer and possible mechanisms of therapy resistance

Breast cancer represents one of the most common cancers in women and is a major life threatening illness found all over the world. Therapy approaches include irradiation and surgery, with chemotherapy considered an important strategy to treat breast cancer. Platinum based anticancer drugs, such as cisplatin (cis-di-amino-dichloride-platin, CDDP), carboplatin, orthoplatin, etc., have been successfully used in breast cancer therapy because they activate multiple mechanisms to induce apoptosis in tumor cells. Nevertheless, during chemotherapy, drug resistance frequently develops; this impairs the successful treatment of breast cancer and often leads to patients’ decease. While combinations of anticancer drugs used in chemotherapy regimens reduced the occurrence of drug resistance (e.g. doxorubicin + docetaxel, doxorubicin + cyclophosphamide, docetaxel + herceptin + carboplatin) the molecular mechanism of those effects are not completely understood. Here we review possible mechanisms related to breast cancer treatment and resistance to current therapies as well as possible new therapeutic targets (e.g. calcium signaling) which could be used in the future.