About this Research Topic
Despite the significant efforts of the scientific community to define the biological building-blocks of cancer cell resistance to therapy, it is still a great challenge in cancer research today. There are likely as many underlying mechanisms of resistance as there are patients with cancer. Among them, the oncogenic drivers, disrupted DNA repair, the epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT), cancer stem cells expansion, defective cell death pathways (such as apoptosis and autophagy), and the presence of ABC transporters, represent only some of the molecular mechanisms associated with cytotoxic drugs and targeted cancer therapeutic agents.
This Research Topic aims to collect studies on the biological determinants of chemoresistance (i.e. tumor heterogeneity and microenvironment, tumor burden and growth kinetics, defective apoptosis mechanisms, immune system escape, undruggable cancer drivers) and on the innovative approaches aimed at solving the problem of resistance. A powerful approach to molecularly dissect the resistance of cancer cells to therapy might be represented by combining the assessment of the physical properties of the tumor and a deep analysis of tumor drivers and “druggable” targets. Moreover, the development of novel drugs, the design of improved pharmacological kinetics, the collection of clinical-genomic data and computational modelling, will significantly aid the achievement of precise monitoring, and better patient responses to cancer to therapy.
Our final goal is to provide readers a new roadmap for tackling the problem of chemoresistance. This Research Topic will cover, but is not limited to, the following:
- Role of intra and inter-patients variability of both cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment in chemoresistance
- Characterization of molecular mechanisms involved in survival and death of drug-resistant or sensitive cancer cells, respectively
- Ferroptosis as an alternative weapon to kill apoptosis-resistant cancer cells
- Identification of novel “druggable” targets
- Epigenetic or metabolic changes impacting cancer cell resistance to therapy
- Immune modulation of cell sensitivity to cancer chemotherapy
- Discovery of early prognostic biomarkers through high-throughput approaches
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
This Research Topic aims to collect studies on the biological determinants of chemoresistance (i.e. tumor heterogeneity and microenvironment, tumor burden and growth kinetics, defective apoptosis mechanisms, immune system escape, undruggable cancer drivers) and on the innovative approaches aimed at solving the problem of resistance. A powerful approach to molecularly dissect the resistance of cancer cells to therapy might be represented by combining the assessment of the physical properties of the tumor and a deep analysis of tumor drivers and “druggable” targets. Moreover, the development of novel drugs, the design of improved pharmacological kinetics, the collection of clinical-genomic data and computational modelling, will significantly aid the achievement of precise monitoring, and better patient responses to cancer to therapy.
Our final goal is to provide readers a new roadmap for tackling the problem of chemoresistance. This Research Topic will cover, but is not limited to, the following:
- Role of intra and inter-patients variability of both cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment in chemoresistance
- Characterization of molecular mechanisms involved in survival and death of drug-resistant or sensitive cancer cells, respectively
- Ferroptosis as an alternative weapon to kill apoptosis-resistant cancer cells
- Identification of novel “druggable” targets
- Epigenetic or metabolic changes impacting cancer cell resistance to therapy
- Immune modulation of cell sensitivity to cancer chemotherapy
- Discovery of early prognostic biomarkers through high-throughput approaches
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Keywords: epithelial-mesenchymal-transition, cancer stem cells, apoptosis, autophagy, tumor microenvironment, resistance mechanisms, resistance biomarkers, cancer pathways
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
