Stress Response Pathways in Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

Targeting the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) in cancer therapy and management is among the core components of cancer control, nowadays. Therefore, the study of Stress Response Pathways (SRP) is substantial and constitutes a very fertile area for extensive research. SRP could be defined as “cellular and organismal mechanisms to resist the effects of stress and/or restore homeostasis when conditions change”. Biological stressors come in many forms, such as thermal stress, oxidative stress, xenobiotic stress, proteotoxic stress, and osmotic stress. In the context of cancer biology, oncogene activation, such as MYC overexpression, can trigger the ISR, while cancer cells with enhanced proliferation have enhanced protein synthesis which leads to a high basal level of the ISR as compared to normal cells. This could potentially explain the link between ISR inducers and the selective targeting of cancer cells. Different stressors trigger different cellular responses, such as inducing cell repair mechanisms, inducing cell responses that result in temporary adaptation to some stressors, inducing autophagy, or triggering cell death. SRP seems to play an integral role both in cancer development and cancer therapy and survival.

The following research topics are of major interest: 1. stress and stress response; 2. Metabolic and oxidative stress in tumor cells; 3. Stress response components in cancer; 4. The role of stress response in tumor development and progression; 5. Interventions related to stress response in clinical and epidemiological studies.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to gather a collective group of studies to map the current evidence and trends on SRP and cancer. It aims to depict the dual role of SRP in cancer prevention and therapy and suggest integrative understanding as a basis for the development of future rational and holistic therapies targeting the stress response.

This Special Issue welcomes both original research articles and reviews (i.e., review scoping or systematic review, meta-analysis). Lastly, all types of epidemiological study design are welcomed, including cross-sectional studies, cohorts, clinical trials and interventions.

Dr. Dimitra Sifaki-Pistolla
Dr. Vasiliki Stavroulaki
Guest Editors

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• stress response pathways
• stress
• stress expression
• cancer
• malignant neoplasms
• cancer patients
• mental health
• cell repair mechanisms
• cell responses
• stressors
• autophagy
• trigger cell death