Pancreatic Cancer: Clinical Standards, Unmet Needs and Future Directions
A Special Issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694) belonging to the section "Clinical Research in Cancer".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2026) | Viewed by 11012
Editor
Interests: precision cancer medicine; precision immuno-oncoloy; precision oncology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Pancreatic cancer is a highly complex and heterogeneous disease, with the worst prognosis among leading cancer types. Late diagnosis, minimal residual disease (MRD) following surgical resections and resistance to current standard neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy are the causes of alarmingly high recurrence rates (80–90%).
To overcome these unmet challenges, breakthrough patient-centric research focuses on the development of prognostic and predictive biomarkers to eliminate MRD through meaningful therapy. Towards this direction, this Special Issue invites a wide spectrum of clinicians such as surgical and medical oncologists, as well as researchers aiming to develop comprehensive rational treatment with targeted therapy and immunotherapy. Considering the limitations of chemotherapy and targeted therapy, research interest concentrates on how to enhance the natural capacity of immune cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME). Harnessing multiomics technologies at bulk and particularly single-cell resolution, the goal of cancer immunotherapy, encompassing immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), adoptive cellular therapy and mRNA vaccines, could be achieved over the next decade. Indeed, phase II/III trials are ongoing, evaluating the clinical utility of next-generation bispecific antibodies for dual checkpoint inhibition. Moreover, on the basis of the successful mRNA cancer vaccines in phase I clinical trials, a global randomized trial will take place soon. The development of tumor and liquid biopsy biomarkers can further improve the efficacy of these immunotherapies by enabling precision immunotherapy.
Prof. Dr. Dimitrios H. Roukos
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- standard clinical management
- surgery
- neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant treatment
- cancer immunotherapy
- targeted therapy
- detection and elimination of MRD
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