Computational Analysis of Cancer Clonal Evolution: Signatures, Determinants and Dynamics
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Informatics and Big Data".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: clonal evolution in cancers; genetic determinants of cancer; epigenetic reprogramming; tumor–immune microenvironment; multi-omics data integration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The pathological and clinical heterogeneity of cancers arises from somatic evolution that begins in early lesions and proceeds through complex clonal dynamics. Previous studies have identified many cancer driver genes that serve as key targets for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. However, these genes alone rarely capture the temporal and spatial dynamics of cancer clonal evolution. With breakthroughs in immune cell therapy, cancer vaccines, and gene editing, there is an urgent need for computational frameworks that can quantitatively characterize the origins, trajectories, and clinical consequences of cancer clonality.
This Special Issue is therefore dedicated to the computational analysis of the determinants and dynamics of clonal evolution in cancers. By integrating multimodal, high-throughput data with innovative analytical approaches, we aim to resolve and reconstruct clonal evolution in diverse tumor types and to reveal new hallmarks of cancer that encode quantifiable laws governing tumorigenesis, progression, and treatment response. Ultimately, this Special Issue seeks to bridge the gap between single-gene driver research and a holistic, evolution-based understanding of cancer biology and precision oncology.
Authors are expected to provide rigorous validation for their work, as follows: Purely computational/informatics (analysis) papers should include sufficient experimental validation; papers on deep learning should include training, test, and validation sets of data; models built to determine biological outcome should also be accomplished by functional studies, including in vitro and/or in vivo experiments; Experimental or multiple database data verification is needed for bioinformatics articles. If the authors make a claim for the prognostic or predictive value of a signature, then it must be tested in comparison to existing prognostic/predictive procedures. For articles describing new bioinformatics methods, the authors need to compare the new methods with the existing ones.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Qiyuan Li
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-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
- clonal evolution in cancers
- computational analysis
- genetic determinants
- epigenetic reprogramming
- DNA methylation signatures
- mutational signatures
- tumor–immune microenvironment
- cancer driver genes
- somatic mutations
- germline variants
- multi-omics integration
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
