Breast cancer is the most detrimental malignancy in women around the world and is associated with high morbidity and mortality despite a continuous renaissance in treatment strategies. According to Global Cancer Statistics 2022, female breast cancer ranks second in terms of new cancer incidence, accounting for 11.6 % of all cancer sites. A total of 2.3 million (23.8 %) new cases were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022. Meanwhile, In the case of cancer-related death, breast cancer ranks fourth, comprising 6.9 % of all cancer deaths (Bray et al., 2024). Based on data from the US population from 2017–2019, as reported in Cancer Statistics 2024, the probability index of developing female invasive breast cancer is high in the age interval of 65–84 years (Siegel, Giaquinto, & Jemal, 2024). Moreover, there has been a gradual increase in female breast cancer incidence rates, amounting to around 0.6 % annually. This increase has been primarily attributed to the diagnosis of localized stage and hormone-positive disease (Giaquinto et al., 2022). Of note, the mortality rate of female breast cancer crested in 1989 and has progressively plunged by 42 % in 2021, decreasing the death rate by 1 % annually from 2013 to 2021 (Siegel et al., 2024). This improvement is ascribed to enhanced therapy, increased awareness, and early diagnosis through mammography screening.

Breast cancer shows diverse characteristics and is stratified based on receptor positivity as molecular subtypes namely, luminal A (50–60 %), luminal B (30 %), HER-2+ (10 %) and basal-like. Most of the targeted therapies are developed by focusing on estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), and HER-2 receptors in breast cancer. Breast cancer cases negative for these three receptors are defined as triple-negative breast cancer, which accounts for about 15 % of total breast cancer cases. Each subtype of breast cancer exhibits distinct clinical and molecular traits in response to treatment regimens. Surgery, hormonal therapy, and targeted therapy are the conventional therapeutic strategies against breast cancer (Burguin, Diorio, & Durocher, 2021). Despite the development of innovative therapeutic options against breast cancer, the incidence and mortality rate remain elevated continuously. The increasing complexity in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer faces challenges in the healthcare systems. One of the challenges is targeting cancer cells by demolishing the glucose flux at the earliest steps in glucose metabolism.

Metabolic reprogramming is the foremost hallmark of cancer in which enormous energy is produced through glycolysis rather than oxidative phosphorylation even in the presence of sufficient oxygen. The phenomenon is known as the Warburg effect, named after the German scientist, Otto Warburg, who described that cancer cells are exceedingly dependent on glycolysis and secrete high levels of lactate (Warburg, 1956). It is of paramount importance that cancer cells upsurge the glucose augmentation through the glucose transporters into the cells, which leverage the synthesis of glucose metabolites and switch on diverse metabolic pathways. Glycolysis is the primary bioenergetic pathway responsible for glucose metabolism and ATP production in several cancer types, including breast cancer. The robust dependency of cancer cells on glucose augmentation has been exploited in diagnostic techniques, which rely on Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of tumour tissues that have absorbed 18F-fluro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) (Tabouret-Viaud et al., 2015). Clinically, PET scanning is extremely beneficial for detecting recurring and metastatic lesions, and high FDG uptake is associated with higher-grade, poorly differentiated, and elevated proliferation rates in breast cancer (Avril et al., 2001, Bos et al., 2002).