Environmental Toxicology and Cancer: Mechanisms, Risk Assessment and Therapeutic Implications
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 278
Editor
2. Cancer Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
Interests: breast cancer; pancreatic cancer; non-small-cell lung cancer; neuroinflammation; NLRP3; microRNA; inflammasome
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The intersection of environmental science and oncology is one of the most critical frontiers in modern medicine. Environmental toxicants—including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, endocrine disruptors and particulate matter—are increasingly recognized as key contributors to carcinogenesis. Advances in exposure science, molecular toxicology and multi-omics profiling now allow for a deeper mechanistic understanding of how environmental stressors initiate, promote, or accelerate malignant transformation.
We invite original research articles, review articles and systematic reviews on topics including, but not limited to:
- Molecular Mechanisms: Insights into pathways like AhR, Wnt/β-catenin and TGF-β as mediators of toxicant-induced transformation.
- Case Studies in Exposure: Impact of military burn pits, World Trade Center dust, or industrial runoff on specific cancer types (Lung, Colorectal and Leukemia).
- The Tumor Microenvironment: How pollutants drive the transition of stromal cells into "aggressive" Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts.
- Early Detection: The role of environmental factors in the development of pre-leukemic conditions like Clonal Hematopoiesis.
- Prevention and Mitigation: Novel strategies to attenuate toxicant-induced damage through antioxidants or signaling inhibitors.
By bringing together toxicologists, molecular biologists and clinicians, this Special Issue will provide a comprehensive overview of how our environment shapes cancer risk. It will serve as a foundational resource for developing better risk-assessment models and identifying high-risk populations for early screening.
Thank you for considering this proposal.
Dr. Inamul Haque
Guest Editor
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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-anonymized 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
- environmental carcinogenesis
- toxicogenomics
- particulate matter (PM2.5)
- aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling
- oxidative stress and DNA damage
- clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential
- epigenetic reprogramming
- endocrine disruptors
- air pollution
- lung cancer
- hematological malignancies
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