Stem Cell Origin of Cancers: Biological and Clinical Implications of a Unified Theory of Cancer
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Pathophysiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 December 2023) | Viewed by 8986
Special Issue Editors
Interests: genitourinary malignancies; cancer stem cells; intratumoral heterogeneity
Interests: prostate cancer; urology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue in Cancers related to research pertaining to the stem cell origin of cancers.
Nowadays, the conventional wisdom is that genetic mutations cause cancer. We seek driver mutations amidst a plethora of passenger mutations. However, it is doubtful that driver mutations drive several cancer hallmarks, including metastasis and heterogeneity.
There is also a prevailing sentiment that precision medicine is key to effective and safe cancer treatment. However, when we face and deal with cancers that have complex genetic makeup and dynamic epigenetic potential, the reality is more fluid than stable, mutable than predictable—the exact opposite of precision.
Another popular belief is that defective immunity enables cancer. We would like to manipulate and harness the immune system for our singular therapeutic purposes. However, it seems that many patients have an intact immune system, and most cancers are innately immune privileged.
Therefore, we need novel ideas to account for this reality of cancer. We need a stem cell origin—a unified theory—that encompasses and embraces the varied myriad aspects (e.g., genomic, epigenomic, immunological) of cancer.
This Special Issue aims to inspire research and provide data to convince the skeptics and convert the cynics. Hopefully, Mark Twain was right when he said that the person “with a new idea is a crank, until the idea succeeds”. This Special Issue aims to clarify current narratives and perspectives on cancer. The idea that cancer is a stem cell disease and that the stem cell origin of cancer may be the unified theory of cancers have broad biological ramifications and immense clinical implications. It affects how we connect disparate scientific disciplines and how we pursue drug versus therapy developments.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following: cancer stem cells, stem-ness or stem-like biomarkers, metabolism, and microenvironment.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Shi-Ming Tu
Dr. Louis L. Pisters
Prof. Dr. John F. Ward
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- cancer stem cells
- cancer-initiating cell
- progenitor cell
- epithelial–Mesenchymal transition
- pluripotency
- plasticity
- heterogeneity
- embryogenesis
- stem-like
- stem-ness
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