Targeted therapies use special drugs and other substances that attack specific molecular agents or pathways involved in the development of cancer. Unlike chemotherapy drugs, targeted therapies can destroy cancer cells with minimal damage to the surrounding healthy cells.

One of the drawbacks to targeted therapies is that they can only work on cancers that exhibit the specific agents the therapy was designed to target. Unfortunately, many cancers are not eligible for treatment with targeted therapy at this time. However, the development of new targeted therapies offers great promise for current and future breast cancer treatments.