The inability to prevent disease relapse is the main difficulty faced by physicians in any area of medicine. Unfortunately, this is a common event in several types of cancer, even in those where chemotherapy appeared initially effective. The acquisition of resistance to diverse chemotherapeutic agents by tumor cells is known as multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype and is still the major cause of death in patients with small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, acute leukemia, and other cancers, despite the major advances witnessed in cancer chemotherapy. For many decades, clinical oncologists and researchers dealt with the phenomenon without fully recognizing its causes. With the recent developments in the fields of EMT, cancer stemness and tumor metabolism, there are now new insights to look more closely at MDR. In this research topic, we aim to cover biological aspects related to drug-resistant cancer cells by methods, hypotheses and theories, historical data, opinions, research articles, mini-reviews and reviews.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- The connection between epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and MDR phenotype in transformed cells;
- How tumor metabolism and microenvironment may influence and/or drive the acquisition of MDR phenotype
- Cancer stem cells and MDR phenotype;
- The discovery of natural and / or synthetic drugs that may disturb the MDR phenotype in tumors;
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.
The inability to prevent disease relapse is the main difficulty faced by physicians in any area of medicine. Unfortunately, this is a common event in several types of cancer, even in those where chemotherapy appeared initially effective. The acquisition of resistance to diverse chemotherapeutic agents by tumor cells is known as multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype and is still the major cause of death in patients with small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, acute leukemia, and other cancers, despite the major advances witnessed in cancer chemotherapy. For many decades, clinical oncologists and researchers dealt with the phenomenon without fully recognizing its causes. With the recent developments in the fields of EMT, cancer stemness and tumor metabolism, there are now new insights to look more closely at MDR. In this research topic, we aim to cover biological aspects related to drug-resistant cancer cells by methods, hypotheses and theories, historical data, opinions, research articles, mini-reviews and reviews.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- The connection between epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and MDR phenotype in transformed cells;
- How tumor metabolism and microenvironment may influence and/or drive the acquisition of MDR phenotype
- Cancer stem cells and MDR phenotype;
- The discovery of natural and / or synthetic drugs that may disturb the MDR phenotype in tumors;
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.
