Advancing Novel Cancer Therapeutics: Discovery, Validation and Translation of Molecular Targets
A Special Issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694) belonging to the section "Cancer Therapy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 275
Editors
Interests: aptamers (DNA, RNA); diagnostics; therapeutics; cancer; PROTAC; peptides; CRISPR; AI
Interests: pharmaceutical; cell biology; molecular biology; cancer research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Despite the availability of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, cancer remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide, largely due to the limited selectivity and severe "off-target" side effects of conventional treatments. While precision medicine has introduced monoclonal antibodies and small-molecule inhibitors to target oncoproteins, tumors frequently develop drug resistance, rendering many current therapies ineffective over time. Consequently, there is an urgent need for the discovery, validation, and translation of novel molecular targets that are essential for tumor survival but absent in healthy tissue.
The advancement of cancer therapeutics is transitioning from broad-spectrum treatments to a "rational" approach centered on molecular targets. This process—moving from initial discovery to clinical application—is critical for developing therapies that are more effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy. This edition of Cancers will mainly focus on “Discovery: Identifying the Vulnerability, Validation: Proving the Target and Translation”, for example, but not restricted to, “Precision Delivery via Aptamer Conjugates”. Also, we would be interested in research highlighting the impact of this drug discovery journey strategically. Any research relevant to precision medicine is also welcome.
Dr. Chandan Narayan
Dr. A. R. M. Ruhul Amin
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 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-anonymized 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
- cancer therapeutics
- precision medicine
- aptamers
- chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy (CAR-T)
- CRISPR-Cas systems
- AI
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