Molecular Mechanisms Fueling Glioblastoma Progression and Resistance: Emerging Therapeutic Opportunities
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Neurobiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: cell death; apoptosis; cellular differentiation; cellular and mitochondrial metabolism; cellular and mitochondrial homoeostasis; oxidative stress; cancer; cancer stem cells; glioma; radiotherapy and radioresistance; tumor heterogeneity ; cell plasticity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor, remains one of the deadliest human cancers, with minimal improvement in patient survival over the past two decades. Standard-of-care therapy—surgical resection followed by radiochemotherapy and, more recently, tumor treating fields—offers only transient benefit, as GBM almost systematically recurs. This relentless relapse stems from multiple hallmarks of GBM biology, including diffuse infiltrative dissemination within the surrounding brain parenchyma, profound intratumoral heterogeneity, metabolic and phenotypic plasticity, therapy-resistant GBM stem-like cells, immunosuppressive microenvironment, and robust resistance to cell death.
Recent fundamental, preclinical, and translational studies have begun to unravel the molecular and cellular processes driving GBM progression and therapeutic failure, revealing new vulnerabilities exploitable for treatment. These advances highlight promising avenues such as metabolic targeting, plasticity inhibition, microenvironment modulation, DNA damage response interference, immunotherapeutic interventions, and precision-guided approaches supported by advanced imaging and AI-based patient stratification.
This Special Issue welcomes original research and review articles addressing these emerging concepts and therapeutic innovations, with the aim of accelerating the development of more effective, mechanism-based strategies for GBM management.
Dr. Anthony Lemarié
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- glioblastoma
- cancer stem cells
- radioresistance
- chemoresistance
- targeted therapies
- tumor plasticity
- tumor heterogeneity
- invasion
- immune escape
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