STRATEGIES TO PREDICT TREATMENT RESPONSE AND SELECT THERAPIES IN METASTATIC BREAST CANCER PATIENTS USING A NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING MULTI-GENE PANEL

The standard of care for many patients with advanced breast cancer (BC )is gradually evolving from empirical treatment based on clinicalpathological characteristics to the use of targeted approaches based on the molecular profile of the tumor. In the last decade, an increasing number of molecularly targeted drugs have been developed for the treatment of metastatic BC. These drugs target specific molecular abnormalities that confer to cancer cells a survival advantage. Interestingly, the ability to perform multigene testing for a range of molecular alterations may provide an opportunity to clarify the mechanisms of treatment response, to find the strategies to overcome treatment resistance and thus, to identify patients who are more likely to develop relapse and who may be candidates for matched targeted therapies. The main aim of this study is to find prognostic and predictive molecular biomarkers for the management of metastatic BC patients in clinical practice.