Brain diseases come in many different forms. It is estimated that these pathologies affect the lives of 1 in 6 people, and cost over a trillion dollars in annual treatment. The major categories of brain diseases include neurodegenerative disorders, i.e. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, dementias and mental syndromes, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, stroke and transient ischemic attacks, and diverse brain cancers. A great effort is still being devoted to explore and better understand the different cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of these brain dysfunctions, especially in cancer.
The ultimate goal is to identify new personalized clinical therapies improving the patient prognosis and treatments. To this aim, experimental investigations employing both in vitro and in vivo models, have exploited the more advanced tools and approaches, e.g. pharmacogenomics, pharmacokinetics, metagenomics, epigenetics, proteomics, immunology. However, studies focusing on the link between the understanding of cellular pathways or molecular mechanisms involved in the onset and progression of these pathologies and the development of innovative therapies improving the patient prognosis and quality of life need a further in-depth investigation.
This Frontiers Research Topic seeks out to join contributions from scientists and physicians who investigate on etiopathogenesis and treatment of brain cancers. We will welcome manuscripts focusing, but not limited to, the following subtopics:
1. The use of innovative treatment protocols using newly synthesized drugs or particular drug delivery (e.g. nanoparticle-based delivery strategies in cancer chemotherapy), able to improve healing rate and patient QoL;
2. The development of new therapeutic approaches, e.g. immunotherapy, even concurrently with traditional surgical approaches (e.g., tumor resection), radiation therapy, and chemotherapy;
3. The evaluation of treatment delivery during brain cancer surgery, such as local chemotherapy, often using a biodegradable wafer containing the chemotherapy drug, targeting strictly the brain tumor and resection area, which may help to reduce systemic side effects;
4. The development of personalized therapies targeting specific pathways or abnormalities in brain tumor cells. These targeted therapies could be combined with other conventional brain cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and should be designed to directly block growth, spread or recurrence of cancer or help other therapies working better, leading to fewer side effects;
5. The evaluation of potential use of medicinal mushrooms and phytotherapeutic agents, being sources of identified therapeutic bioactive compounds, as a promising supplement in integrative oncology.
This Frontiers Research Topic will be important to translate the experimental findings to clinical settings, turning them into new clinical therapeutic protocols, facing the challenges in this field and developing new healing perspectives.
Brain diseases come in many different forms. It is estimated that these pathologies affect the lives of 1 in 6 people, and cost over a trillion dollars in annual treatment. The major categories of brain diseases include neurodegenerative disorders, i.e. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, dementias and mental syndromes, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, stroke and transient ischemic attacks, and diverse brain cancers. A great effort is still being devoted to explore and better understand the different cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of these brain dysfunctions, especially in cancer.
The ultimate goal is to identify new personalized clinical therapies improving the patient prognosis and treatments. To this aim, experimental investigations employing both in vitro and in vivo models, have exploited the more advanced tools and approaches, e.g. pharmacogenomics, pharmacokinetics, metagenomics, epigenetics, proteomics, immunology. However, studies focusing on the link between the understanding of cellular pathways or molecular mechanisms involved in the onset and progression of these pathologies and the development of innovative therapies improving the patient prognosis and quality of life need a further in-depth investigation.
This Frontiers Research Topic seeks out to join contributions from scientists and physicians who investigate on etiopathogenesis and treatment of brain cancers. We will welcome manuscripts focusing, but not limited to, the following subtopics:
1. The use of innovative treatment protocols using newly synthesized drugs or particular drug delivery (e.g. nanoparticle-based delivery strategies in cancer chemotherapy), able to improve healing rate and patient QoL;
2. The development of new therapeutic approaches, e.g. immunotherapy, even concurrently with traditional surgical approaches (e.g., tumor resection), radiation therapy, and chemotherapy;
3. The evaluation of treatment delivery during brain cancer surgery, such as local chemotherapy, often using a biodegradable wafer containing the chemotherapy drug, targeting strictly the brain tumor and resection area, which may help to reduce systemic side effects;
4. The development of personalized therapies targeting specific pathways or abnormalities in brain tumor cells. These targeted therapies could be combined with other conventional brain cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and should be designed to directly block growth, spread or recurrence of cancer or help other therapies working better, leading to fewer side effects;
5. The evaluation of potential use of medicinal mushrooms and phytotherapeutic agents, being sources of identified therapeutic bioactive compounds, as a promising supplement in integrative oncology.
This Frontiers Research Topic will be important to translate the experimental findings to clinical settings, turning them into new clinical therapeutic protocols, facing the challenges in this field and developing new healing perspectives.
