Cancer Progression and Therapeutic Resistance Mechanisms
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Oncology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 29
Special Issue Editor
Interests: prostate cancer; melanoma; ovarian cancer; cancer biology; mechanisms of cancer cell death; cancer metastasis; cancer metabolism; cancer drug resistance; cancer stem cells; tumor microenvironment; extracellular vesicles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cancer is still a major health problem worldwide. Current therapeutic strategies include surgery, cytotoxic chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiation therapy, endocrine therapy, and immunotherapy. Despite the progress made in treating cancers during the past years, resistance to current approaches represents an unsolved issue in tumor management. Therefore, a better understanding of the mechanisms of drug resistance is urgently needed to provide guidance to improve therapeutic outcomes. In this regard, several biological events have been demonstrated to be involved in the development of resistance to standard therapies: activation of growth factor receptors and their downstream signaling pathways, DNA repair mechanisms, metabolic rewiring, miRNA expression and transfer, ATP-binding cassette transporter-mediated drug extrusion, and cancer stem cell subpopulation enrichment. Another key mechanism commonly implicated in the reduction in anticancer drug sensitivity is represented by the bidirectional communication between tumor cells and their microenvironment (stromal cells, vascular endothelial cells, immune cells), often regulated by extracellular vesicles and their molecular cargo. More recently, the crucial role of the gut microbiome in tumor progression and the response to different anticancer agents has also been highlighted. Several efforts are now directed towards the identification of innovative biomarkers that could predict treatment responses and prevent tumor relapse. Circulating cancer cells, as well as circulating tumor DNA, cancer cell secretome, tumor-derived extracellular vesicles, and miRNAs, can be easily isolated from patient body fluids. Thus, liquid biopsies are currently considered an interesting tool not only for cancer detection but also to define or promptly modify the proper antitumor treatment regimens. Finally, various novel therapeutic approaches, involving both synthetic and natural compounds, are being developed to overcome drug resistance.
Based on the above considerations, potential topics include but are not limited to the activation of growth factor receptors and their downstream signaling pathways, DNA repair mechanisms, cancer metabolism, miRNA expression and transfer, ATP-binding cassette transporter activity, cancer stem cell maintenance and propagation, extracellular vesicles, microbiota, circulating cancer cells, circulating cancer DNA, liquid biopsies, and novel synthetic and natural anticancer compounds.
Dr. Fabrizio Fontana
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- cancer drug resistance
- growth factors
- DNA repair
- miRNAs
- ABC transporters
- cancer stem cells
- extracellular vesicles
- circulating cancer cells
- circulating cancer DNA
- liquid biopsies
- natural anticancer compounds
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