Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Immunology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Oncology, Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
  • 3 Department of Immunology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, 16150, Malaysia
Ther Adv Med Oncol, 2018;10:1758835918808509.
PMID: 30542378 DOI: 10.1177/1758835918808509

Abstract

Breast cancer is the global leading cause of cancer-related death in women and it represents a major health burden worldwide. One of the promising breast cancer therapeutic avenues is through small molecule inhibitors (SMIs) which have undergone rapid progress with successful clinical trials. Recently, three emerging and vital groups of proteins are targeted by SMIs for breast cancer treatment, namely cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6), poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Several of these inhibitors have been approved for the treatment of breast cancer patients or progressed into late-stage clinical trials. Thus, modeling from these successful clinical trials, as well as their limitations, is pivotal for future development and trials of other inhibitors or therapeutic regimens targeting breast cancer patients. In this review, we discuss eight recently approved or novel SMIs against CDK4/6 (palbociclib, ribociclib and abemaciclib), PARP (olaparib, veliparib and talazoparib), and PI3K (buparlisib and alpelisib). The mechanisms of action, series of clinical trials and limitations are described for each inhibitor.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.