Breast cancer is not a single disease but a cluster of diseases, each with its own characteristics that allow it to survive and thrive. While advances have been made in understanding the nuances of each sub-type, standard treatment remains more or less the same: resect the cancer with surgery and infuse the patient with toxic drugs that kill healthy cells along with the cancerous ones. It is an imprecise approach at a time when precision is demanded.
Members of the Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research know that to improve results for women with breast cancer, they must design therapies that consider the unique traits of the tumor and the woman it has invaded. Combining this information yields therapies tailored to each patient– precision therapeutics that are best tolerated by the patient and that precisely target her tumor.
At the Vera Bradley Foundation Center, investigators refer to this approach as Monogrammed Medicine.