Current therapeutic progress of CDK4/6 inhibitors in breast cancer

Abstract

The clinical use of selective cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitors has significantly improved the prognosis of patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer (ABC/mBC), which almost achieved the double progression-free survival (PFS) in combination with endocrine therapy (ET) compared with ET alone. To date, there are 3 CDK4/6 inhibitors (palbociclib, ribocilcib and abemaciclib) approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) to treat patients with HR +/HER2-ABC/mBC in the first and later lines. The aim of this review is to summarize the current clinical use and ongoing clinical trials of CDK4/6 inhibitors, the published overall survival data, and the potential biomarkers and resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors.