Advanced Molecular Research on Gastrointestinal Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

The treatment outcome of gastrointestinal tumors has improved dramatically due to various factors, including early-stage cancer diagnosis enabled by advances in diagnostic tools, advances in drug therapy (molecular targeted therapy and multidrug combination therapy), and the development of surgical techniques. In addition, the long-term disease control of refractory inflammatory bowel disease has become possible, but the development of colitis-associated cancer in patients with long-term follow-up is still a problem. However, due to the diversity of gastrointestinal diseases, many clinical questions need to be resolved, such as dealing with difficult-to-diagnose cases, surgical intervention timing, appropriate drug therapy, and treatment strategies for refractory patients with gastrointestinal diseases.

Immune-checkpoint molecules, which regulate immune responses between cancer cells and host immune cells, have been identified as important factors responsible for cancer immune-escape mechanisms. Therefore, drugs based on immune-checkpoint inhibitors have attracted attention both as therapeutic agents for patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancers and as adjuvant therapy options after radical resection. Although various immune-checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 antibodies have already been used in the clinic, biomarkers are needed to predict and diagnose patients who are non-responders and have the characteristic side effects caused by autoimmune responses against vital organs in the host.

This Special Issue gives insights into the latest findings on a wide range of topics of gastrointestinal disease, including surgical intervention, new molecular target therapeutic strategies, tumor immune-related molecules, biomarker research for the diagnosis and prediction of disease existence and therapeutic efficacy, and basic research addressing the complex pathogenesis of various digestive diseases.

Dr. Takehiko Yokobori
Guest Editor

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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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.