Overview

Precision medicine for breast cancer is a way of finding the treatment that is most likely to help you. This approach may involve looking at your DNA or testing your cancer cells to see which treatments might work best.

Precision medicine for breast cancer also can help with diagnosis and prevention.

Precision medicine for breast cancer might be used to:

Look for variations in your DNA that might increase your risk of breast cancer and other types of cancer.
Understand how your body is likely to respond to a medicine by testing your DNA.
Choose the medicine that's most likely to work on your cancer cells by testing the DNA inside the cancer cells.
Look at other things that make up your cancer cells, such as certain proteins or markers on the surface of the cells. These things can tell your healthcare team whether a certain medicine is likely to work on your cancer.

Precision medicine also is called personalized medicine and individualized medicine.

Cancer care was one of the first medical specialties to use precision medicine. Some ways of using precision medicine in cancer care are commonly used in medical centers. Others might be available only in specialized medical centers. Many ways of using precision medicine are only available in clinical trials. This is an active area of cancer research.

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Why it's done

Precision medicine for breast cancer is used to find the treatment that is most likely to help you. It also might be used in the diagnosis and prevention of breast cancer.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

Precision medicine for breast cancer care at Mayo Clinic

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Doctors & Departments

Oct. 23, 2024

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A Book: Beyond Breast Cancer