Objective To investigate the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and therapy response of some conventional chemotherapy drugs in breast cancer, and to explore the value of SNP in guiding individualized treatment. Methods Pub-Medline and Chinese CHKD periodical electronic databases were searched. Representative researches in this field were sorted out and concluded. Results Varied genes related to drug metabolism have SNP phenomenon, which are closely associated with interindividual diversity in drug response. Race, section, environment, and drug-drug or gene-gene interactions may have effect on the association.Conclusion The study on SNP has important application prospect in optimizing the individual drug-delivery. However, the combinatorial analyses of multi-SNPs and multi-genes and the prospective studies with large-scale samples and random controls are still needed.