Current and Future Pharmacochemical Strategies for Cancer Targeting

Dear Colleagues,

Innovative pharmacochemical strategies are reshaping precision oncology. Pharmacochemical cancer targeting exploits tumor-specific vulnerabilities and microenvironmental cues to maximize cytotoxicity while sparing healthy tissue. These precision-guided approaches aim to minimize off-target effects and reduce systemic toxicity. 

Although conventional small-molecule inhibitors have achieved remarkable clinical success, limitations such as acquired resistance, limited target coverage, and off-target toxicities continue to drive the search for next-generation therapeutic modalities. Recent advances in oncopharmacology, chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, and targeted drug design have broadened the range of actionable cancer targets and introduced novel mechanisms for selective interventions.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the pharmacochemical innovations shaping the future of cancer treatment and to identify emerging opportunities to develop safer, more effective, and personalized anticancer therapies. 

This Special Issue highlights current and emerging pharmacochemical cancer-targeting methods, spanning fundamental research and translational applications with potential applications in oncotherapies. Topics include, but are not limited to, targeted protein degradation technologies such as PROTACs, molecular glues, LYTACs, and other event-driven strategies. The emphasis is on bifunctional inhibitors and degraders that modulate multiple pathways, overcome resistance, or improve target selectivity. Contributions on covalent inhibitors, allosteric modulators, antibody-drug conjugates, radiopharmaceuticals, peptide therapeutics, and engineered immunotherapies are encouraged.

Pharmaceutics invites submissions related to targeted drug delivery systems and innovative formulations for precision oncology, while Future Pharmacology encourages contributions centered on pharmacochemical targeting mechanisms, molecular pharmacology, and next-generation therapeutic modalities. 

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Pharmaceutics. 

Dr. Juan Santibanez
Dr. Tatjana Srdic-Rajić
Dr. Milica Tošić
Dr. Cesar Antonio Echeverria
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 short 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. Future Pharmacology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1200 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.