Synthetic lethal approaches to breast cancer therapy

The promise of personalized therapy for breast cancer is that therapeutic efficacy will be increased while toxic effects are reduced to a minimum. To achieve this goal, there is now an emphasis on the design of therapies that are based not only on the clinical manifestations of the disease, but also on the underlying molecular and cellular biology of cancer. However, identifying targets for personalized therapies in breast cancer is challenging. Here, we describe how biological concepts such as synthetic lethality and oncogene addiction can be used to identify new therapeutic targets and approaches. We discuss the current clinical developments in implementing synthetic lethality therapies, and highlight new ways in which this approach could be used to target specific subsets of breast cancer.