Precision Medicine in Gastrointestinal Oncology

Dear Colleagues,

Precision medicine and targeted therapy have revolutionized the treatment of various cancers in the past decade. Precision medicine is a therapeutic approach designed to treat individual patients with the most appropriate treatment regimen based on the patients’ genetic and molecular profiles by using next-generation sequencing (NGS) to analyze the genes of their cancer cells. Using this approach, we can detect cancer-specific driver gene mutations for which molecular targeted drugs can be designed to specifically and effectively target such actionable gene mutation for a better outcome and minimal toxicity. Given our knowledge and the increased accessibility of affordable tumor genome sequencing technologies, targeted and immune-based cancer therapeutics have emerged as desirable treatment options not only by oncologists but also by cancer patients.  

With the increasing incidence and mortality of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers and the limited availability of successful therapy, there is an unmet need for a new approach to treat GI malignancies beyond the classical chemotherapy. The development of biomarkers as well as targeted therapies for GI cancer has recently been investigated and applied. Our knowledge of GI cancer molecular profile and biomarkers like Ras, BRAF, HER2, PDL-1, and others has led to the development and utilization of targeted and immuno-based therapies, and hence this Special Issue “Precision Medicine in Gastrointestinal Oncology".

In this Special Issue, we would like to highlight the advancement of precision medicine in GI cancer to inform oncologists and readers about the current availability and use of targeted therapies in upper and lower GI cancers. Our goal is to describe the biomarker-based rationale behind GI cancer classifications in addition to publishing recent advances in GI cancer targeted therapy that include basic, translational, and prospective and retrospective clinical discoveries from esophageal, gastric, colorectal, pancreatic, as well as hepatobiliary cancers.

In this Special Issue we would also like to emphasize emerging targeted strategies that include targeting IDH, FGFR, EGFR, VEGFR, claudin 18.2, HER2, MET, PD-1/PD-L1, PD-L2, BRCA/PARP, and PIK3CA/Akt pathways, as well as other newly discovered and applied targets and immuno-modulatory pathways in GI malignancies. We encourage you to submit your original research articles, however, review articles and case series with clear educational points and analysis are welcomed and will be equally considered. 

In this Special Issue we will also accept manuscripts that highlight and descript the current progress in circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, stool DNA, microRNAs, and the exosome as diagnostic, monitoring, and predictive markers in gastrointestinal cancer.

Dr. Maen Abdelrahim
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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