Studying Drug Resistance Using Cancer Cell Lines

Dear Colleagues,

The occurrence of drug resistance is the number one reason for the failure of anticancer therapies. Hence, the development of improved anticancer treatment regimens will critically depend on an improved understanding of the mechanisms that drive resistance. In addition, preclinical models of drug-resistant cancer are needed to investigate therapy candidates for their efficacy in resistance settings. This is of particular importance, because novel anticancer therapies are often initially tested in patients suffering from highly resistant cancer disease for whom no further standard treatment options are available.

Cancer cell lines have been a workhorse in cancer research for a long time. Panels of cancer cell lines can be used to identify intrinsic drug resistance mechanisms. Cancer cell lines can also be adapted to anticancer drugs to study resistance formation. Major discoveries have been made in drug-adapted cancer cell lines, for example, the identification of the ATP-binding cassette reporters ABCB1 (also known as P-glycoprotein or MDR1) and ABCC1 (also known as MRP1) as major multidrug resistance mechanisms in cancer. Moreover, a large number of studies have shown that drug-adapted cancer cell lines reflect clinically relevant resistance mechanisms.

This Special Issue aims to cover the prospects and limitations of cancer cell lines as preclinical resistance models and research tools in general. This includes therapeutic approaches with a translational aim, examples of the translation of cell line-derived findings into a clinical setting, comparisons of cancer cell lines with other preclinical model systems, and basic research focused on an improved understanding of cell biological and evolutionary processes.

We are looking forward to your contributions.

Prof. Martin Michaelis
Prof. Dr. Jindřich Činátl
Dr. Mark N. Wass
Guest Editors

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