2nd Edition: Minimal Residual Disease of Cancers

Dear Colleagues,

This collection is the second edition of the Special Issue “Minimal Residual Disease of Cancers” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/cancers/special_issues/mrdc).

Minimal residual disease (MRD) is a very small population of cancer cells that persists in a patient in morphologic complete remission (CR) after treatment. The development in the late 1980s of highly sensitive molecular tools based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of DNA sequences and mRNA transcripts resulting from tumor-specific chromosomal translocations has created opportunities to study MRD. After the introduction of quantitative real-time PCR, this approach has become a gold-standard method for MRD testing. Alternative approaches have been developed using the detection of tumor cell antigens with sensitive immunological methods. Finally, gene mutations are being increasingly used as biomarkers for MRD detection in liquid biopsies using digital droplet PCR and new generation sequencing.

As a result of these technological advances, there is a growing number of clinical applications of MRD measurement in a variety of hematological and solid tumors. Moreover, the introduction of effective targeted therapies and drug combinations has increased the rate of patients in CR who need MRD monitoring. Accurate measurement of MRD enables specialists to better assess treatment response, patient prognosis, and the risk of relapse. In several cancers, MRD assessment is now a part of routine investigations and a novel endpoint in clinical trials. However, many challenges remain. They concern the clinical significance of MRD in some cancers, the functional assessment of residual tumor cells, and the development of specific MRD-targeting approaches. This Special Issue will give us an excellent opportunity to highlight the most recent MRD applications and concepts, which can ultimately help to guide specialists’ treatment decisions in patients with cancer.

Dr. Andrei Tchirkov
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.