MELK kinase holds promise as a new radiosensitizing target and biomarker in triple-negative breast cancer

Breast cancer remains the most common malignancy diagnosed in women and is one of the leading causes of cancer death among women. Breast cancer has accounted for ~29% of new cancer cases among women in the United States in 2015 and approximately 40,000 women per year are expected to die from the disease (1). The major subgroups of breast cancer, based on combined expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) have important implications in breast cancer etiology, the systemic therapies prescribed, the effectiveness of such therapies, and in outcome, both recurrence and survival (2,3).