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Cancer / Breast Cancer
There Are More Options Than Ever to Treat Breast Cancer
July 31, 2025
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The number of treatment options for breast cancer—from more efficient drugs that specifically target cancer cells, reducing side effects and preventing recurrence, to therapies that target the immune system—has skyrocketed in recent decades.
There is a wide range of new options, with many other alternatives on the way in late‑phase clinical trials.
Patients have the right to know their options and to talk with their medical team about what the best plan would be for their specific case.
Some treatments increase the efficacy of existing drugs, while others offer new and innovative strategies to attack tumor cells.
One common goal is to reduce sometimes‑intense side effects.
The pillars of breast cancer treatment are surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy, with the first three being the more traditional approaches.
Today, many of these therapy options are used in combination.
Hormone therapy
Some breast cancers have receptors for estrogen and/or progesterone hormones. Therapies that block the growth‑promoting effects of estrogen in tumors with hormone receptors can be used to treat these cancers, called hormone receptor (HR)‑positive cancers or sometimes estrogen receptor (ER)‑positive cancers.
There are many hormone therapies to treat breast cancer. These medications act in different ways, including by suppressing ovarian function and blocking estrogen production and its effects.
Researchers are also studying whether the combination of hormone therapy and radiation therapy is more effective than hormone therapy alone in treating women with low‑risk early‑stage breast cancer.
Targeted therapies for breast cancer
Many targeted therapies have been approved to treat breast cancer. These targeted therapies, which include monoclonal antibodies and small‑molecule drugs, target the proteins that control the growth, division, and spread of cancer cells.
Monoclonal antibodies
Monoclonal antibodies are proteins designed to bind to specific points on cancer cells. One type of monoclonal antibody called an antibody‑drug conjugate helps transport chemotherapy drugs directly to cancer cells without damaging other cells.
Small‑molecule drugs
Small‑molecule drugs are a type of targeted therapy that can penetrate cancer cells and block critical functions. The latest of these pharmacological alternatives was approved in 2024.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that helps the immune system fight cancer more effectively. Studies have shown that some immunotherapy drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors improve the life expectancy of some people with advanced breast cancer, especially those with triple‑negative breast cancer.
Researchers at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) are looking for ways to use cellular therapies, like CAR T‑cell therapy and T‑cell transfer therapy, to treat solid tumors like breast cancer.
Ongoing studies on breast cancer treatment
As of late 2024, the following new drugs and treatments were in clinical trials and had not yet been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA):
- One current NCI‑funded study is looking at patients with early‑stage triple‑negative breast cancer who had a complete response to treatment before surgery but still needed treatment afterward. The standard treatment is giving the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab for 27 weeks after surgery. The goal is to determine whether observation alone works as well as continuing pembrolizumab to prevent the cancer from coming back.
- Another ongoing clinical trial uses tumor‑infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) to shrink tumors in women with metastatic breast cancer.
- In another trial, scientists from the NCI are investigating a type of T‑cell therapy in which a person’s T‑cells are modified in a laboratory to attack cancer cells and then given back to the patient. The study is recruiting patients with solid cancers, including breast cancer.
- Lasofoxifene. A potential new hormone therapy that targets ESR1 gene mutations in breast cancer.
- Durvalumab + Dato‑DXd. A potential new drug combination for triple‑negative breast cancer (TNBC).
New technologies
New and improved technologies can increase speed and precision in breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and follow‑up when determining the cancer’s progression and response to treatment.
- Cerianna (Fluoroestradiol F‑18).This is a diagnostic imaging agent to detect metastasis in estrogen receptor (ER)‑positive breast cancer.
- HER2DX.This is a test to personalize the treatment of HER2‑positive breast cancer. Doctors are getting closer to identifying whether patients with early‑stage HER2‑positive breast cancer can safely avoid chemotherapy by using the HER2DX genomic test. HER2DX is the first test specifically designed to identify HER2‑positive patients with high or low risk of recurrence. For some people, being able to avoid chemotherapy without compromising long‑term results will give them a better quality of life.
Targeted therapies for dormant cancer cells
Dormant cancer cells are cells that did not die during a person’s initial treatment. For unknown reasons, these cells can “hibernate” without being detected until they start to grow again. The bone is a common place where dormant breast cancer cells can hide and potentially grow. In the phase 2 CLEVER study, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology in October 2023, researchers tested whether they could find and eliminate dormant cancer cells in participants’ bone marrow.
The study results showed that the researchers were able to find and eliminate dormant cancer cells in approximately 80% of participants. While wider studies are needed to confirm these results, the CLEVER study demonstrates that this promising approach could prevent breast cancer from coming back.
Research can take decades to arrive in clinical practice, but there are advances that are right around the corner.
Some advances in breast cancer treatment are the result of combining certain medications, identifying whether patients can omit certain items from treatment, or modifying the order of treatments to maximize efficacy or minimize side effects.
With the knowledge acquired in clinical trials, researchers are looking for new ways to improve patient outcomes while using existing drugs.
Sources: United States National Cancer Institute, Susan G. Komen, European Society for Medical Oncology, University of California, Riverside.