Cancer Stem Cells: From Molecular Mechanisms of Development to Potential of Targeted Therapy
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Therapy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 14
Special Issue Editors
Interests: cancer stem cells; cell growth and differentiation; epigenetics; signal transduction; drug delivery system; bioinformatics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered to have the potential of self-renewal and differentiation just like normal stem cells. However, tumorigenicity is the unique character of CSCs. Although the CSC population is small in cancer tissues, CSCs are believed to be responsible for the recurrence and poor prognosis of cancer due to the resistance to chemo-/radiation-therapy. The tumor microenvironment maintains CSCs enhancing intratumoral heterogeneity, where cellular plasticity, metabolic reprogramming, and alterations of epigenetic and/or genetic regulations are involved. These events should lead to epithelial–mesenchymal-transition and/or metastasis through vascular-/lymph-angiogenesis. This Special Issue will highlight the molecular mechanisms underlying these events related to CSCs and the development of novel therapeutic strategies targeting the extra-/intra-cellular biomarkers specific to CSCs and/or the CSC niche.
Prof. Dr. Masaharu Seno
Prof. Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix
Guest Editors
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 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.
Keywords
- tumor microenvironment
- inflammation
- hypoxia
- inflammasome
- cancer initiation
- cellular plasticity
- tumor associated cells
- tumor heterogeneity
- epithelial–mesenchymal-transition
- metastasis
- vascular-/lymph-angiogenesis
- oncogenic signal transduction
- transcription factor
- epigenetics
- transcriptomics
- genetic/metabolic reprogramming
- biomarkers
- drug/radiation resistance
- recurrence
- molecular targeting
- drug delivery
- inhibitors
- precision medicine
- personalized medicine
- patient-derived (orthotopic) xenograft
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