Colorectal and Gastric Cancers: Molecular Mechanisms and Potential Biomarkers

Dear Colleagues,

Colorectal cancer is the third most common malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world, with a yearly estimated number of roughly 2 million new cases and about 900 thousand deaths worldwide. Despite all the progress made in basic science, clinical research and translation medicine within recent years, the molecular mechanisms of colorectal cancer have not been fully understood. They include genetics, metabolomic issues and several immunology aspects. The gastrointestinal microbiome plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer, and the identification of a clearly reliable composition of "beneficial" or "hazardous" colonic microbiota is still pending. There is an insistent need for further studies on factors influencing the micro-environment of the gastrointestinal tract (diet, xenobiotics, bile acids and other signalling molecules, luminal pH and others).

Gastric cancer was the fifth most common malignant tumour in the world in 2020, with approximately 1.1 million new cases, causing 800,000 deaths per year. It comprises cardia and non-cardia gastric cancer and newly recognized diseases (e.g., GAPPS—gastric adenocarcinoma and proximal polyposis of the stomach). The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimated that about one-third (350,000 cases per year) of all sporadic non-cardia gastric cancers are solely attributed to chronic Helicobacter pylori infection. Possible positive or negative association of Helicobacter pylori and cardia gastric cancer has been intensively investigated in recent years. Unlike sporadic non-cardia gastric cancer, Helicobacter pylori is usually absent in patients with GAPPS. Although there is an inverse association between GAPPS and Helicobacter pylori infection, only little data on this association are available so far.

Fully reliable biomarkers are still missing. These markers should be determinative for the identification of cancer risk factors (both in high-risk and average-risk populations) and should cover the progression from premalignant lesions to cancer, the dependability of early diagnosis, staging and grading, the prediction of response to treatment and the side effects of oncology therapy (including immunopathology-associated complications, infections, bile acid malabsorption, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and others). Artificial intelligence should be also implemented, employing advanced methods (e.g., data-mining, artificial neural network and others).

The concept of predictive, preventive and personalized medicine (3PM) is a new approach that is an important revolution in the field of modern medicine that combines advanced medical investigation and technologies and data analytics to predict and prevent diseases and provide personalised treatment to each individual. The potential biomarkers of gastric and colorectal cancer are important and promising parts of the 3PM concept.

Researchers are invited to consider submitting papers on the burning topics mentioned above.

Dr. Jan Bures
Dr. Nicholas J. W. Rattray
Guest Editors

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• colorectal cancer
• gastric cancer
• molecular mechanism
• biomarkers signalling
• molecules gastrointestinal
• microbiome
• artificial intelligence