Trop-2 and Its Overexpression in Cancers: Signaling Pathways, Function, Clinical/Therapeutic Implications

Dear Colleagues,

Trop-2 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that was discovered more than thirty years ago as an antigen expressed on trophoblasts. It was then rapidly shown to be expressed in many solid cancer types, with a distinct impact on disease progression and patient prognosis. Trop-2 was also shown to be expressed along distinct trajectories of cell differentiation in normal tissues, raising questions about both its functional role during development and as potential off-target sites for current anti-Trop-2 immunotherapies.

Indeed, owing to its frequent and strong expression in the majority of carcinomas, Trop-2 has been shown to serve as a major target for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies and for isolating circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of cancer patients. At the molecular level, Trop-2 was initially described as a signaling-active membrane protein involved in the regulation of proliferation, stemness, and cell differentiation. It was more recently shown to serve as a cell adhesion regulatory protein.

This Special Issue of Cancers is centered around various aspects of Trop-2 biology and aims to compile a collection of original experimental and review articles addressing the role of Trop-2 in molecular oncology and cell differentiation. The suggested topics include Trop-2 expression patterns and regulatory circuits, cellular functions, Trop-2 in tumor and metastasis formation, and functional and physical interactions with partner signaling molecules. Other topics of interest include Trop-2 regulation of normal and pathogenic differentiation, including EMT. Emphasis will be placed on clinical and therapeutic applications.

This Special Issue is processed according to International Ethical COPE guidelines. Any misalignments that may occur during the assembly of this Special Issue are to be viewed as entirely unintentional and not part of the contradictory policy.

Prof. Dr. Saverio Alberti
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 short 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.

• molecular oncology
• tumor progression
• cell signaling
• cancer immunotherapy
• TROP-2