Personalized Medicine in Breast cancer: Where we are in practice

Breast Cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women worldwide. It is also the leading cause of cancer mortality around the world. In our country the situation is the same, the incidence is significantly less than western countries though. Meanwhile the mean age of patients is a decade lower than North American and European countries which implies to specific characteristics of the patients in our country. BC patients are classified; based on their biomarker profiles; into different categories. This classification has had a great impact on the identification of risk, prediction of prognosis and response to therapy and also on survival of patients. Biomarkers are the cornerstone of personalized medicine and their role in guiding clinical decisions has got greater importance than the past.Biomarker is the biologic or molecular condition that distinguishes one patient group from another. Biomarkers are classified into different groups including: risk categorization (eg, determination of germline mutations as a marker of susceptibility), screening, differential diagnosis, prognosis, prediction, or monitoring. In this talk the present situation of using biomarkers in clinical practice of Breast Cancer is being discussed.