The Evolving Landscape of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Anal Canal: State of the Art, Current Challenges and Future Perspectives
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2026 | Viewed by 38
Special Issue Editors
Interests: colorectal cancer
Interests: neoplastic and non-neoplastic pathology of the liver and biliary tract; gastrointestinal system; urinary system and tumors; male genitalia; blood vessels
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Squamous cell anal carcinoma (SCAC) is a rare malignancy, but its incidence is continuing to increase, likely due to the spread of HPV. HIV and other immunosuppressive states enhance the risk of contracting HPV and developing SCAC.
The majority of SCAC patients are diagnosed at the non-metastatic stage and are able to undergo curative treatment. For the 10% with advanced disease and another 20% relapsing after initial treatment, few systemic therapies are available, with often disappointing results (the expected median overall survival does not exceed 2 years). Also, local recurrence and pelvic/peritoneal disease negatively impact quality of life.
Recently, immunotherapy has positively changed the outcomes of metastatic SCAC patients. Nevertheless, prognosis remains poor as most patients will experience secondary or even primary resistance to immunotherapy. There is an urgent need to find reliable biomarkers.
This Special Issue will explore the following topics:
- Current treatment of SCAC, focusing on special cases (e.g., HIV +, young patients with fertility desire, and migrants and/or people with linguistic/socio-economic barriers);
- Pathology outlines, with particular attention given to prognostic and predictive biomarkers, especially in relation to immunotherapy and radiotherapy;
- Future perspectives, including novel therapeutic strategies and emerging fields of cancer research (e.g., liquid biopsy, microbiome, tumor immune-contexture, digital pathology, radiomics, and artificial intelligence);
- Rare pathological entities other than squamous cell carcinoma.
Dr. Alessandra Boccaccino
Dr. Francesco Vasuri
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- squamous cell anal carcinoma
- anal cancer
- HIV
- HPV
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