Metastasis of breast cancer: an introduction

Breast cancer is the leading female cancer in Europe and in the USA and amongst the cancer types with high incidence in the rest of the world. In the UK and USA, approximately one in every ten women will contract the disease in their lifetime and it is amongst the leading cause of death in the female population in industrialised countries. The incidence of breast cancer increases with age and is generally peaked in the 50–60 age group. Metastasis, the spread of breast cancer to other locations in the body, is the main reason that leads to the mortality in the patients. The past decades have seen a significant progress in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of cancer metastasis and development of new diagnostic, prognostic and predictive tools. Some of the new discoveries have been translated into clinical practice. This book aims at providing the current knowledge in the area of molecular and cellular basis of breast cancer metastasis, biological factors that influence the metastatic process, developments in the diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, and current thinking in the management of metastatic breast cancer.