Uncovering drug resistance during cancer therapy

Drug resistance is one of the most difficult problems to tackle during cancer therapy. Various mechanisms of developing drug resistance have been exemplified, for example, cancer stem cells (CSCs), immune system hijack, intracellular signaling modulation, etc. However, drug resistance development involves dynamic changes of cancer heterogeneity as cancer evolves, as well as drug-induced physiological changes. Developing drug resistance eventually fails therapy. Hence, uncovering the mechanisms of drug resistance is critical to combating cancers to improve cancer therapy.

This Research Topic aims to address the problem of drug resistance during cancer therapy. We welcome Original Research, Review, and Perspective articles that describe one of the following aspects:

(1) novel biological mechanisms of drug resistance
(2) detailed analysis of known mechanisms of drug resistance to develop novel therapies
(3) novel technologies to study the biological mechanisms of drug resistance, which include but may not be limited to:
• Genetic, genomic, and epigenetic analysis;
• Transcriptomic analysis;
• Single-cell analysis;
• Genetic biomarkers to quantify drug influx/efflux in single cells in correlation to cell viability and drug resistance;
• Genetic biomarkers to predict drug-resistance development in animal models;
• Genetic biomarkers to evaluate diagnosis or predict prognosis of drug resistance development;
• Simulation models to simulate the development of drug resistance using clinical datasets.

Topic Editor Ada Hang-Heng Wong founded AW Medical Co. Ltd. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject.