The Molecular Mechanisms of Metastasis and Therapeutic Resistance in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women around the world. The majority of breast cancer-related deaths result from recurrence and metastasis. Thus, screening and identifying novel critical molecular pathways to uncover the mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis will help develop more effective targeted therapies in these intractable settings. Breast cancer is presenting with increasing incidence while with decreasing mortality in the past few decades, primarily attributed to early detection and emerging effective treatments. However, intrinsic or acquired resistance to treatments, including endocrine therapy, chemotherapy, anti-HER-2 therapy, radiotherapy, and even immunotherapy, remains a significant problem and the most important cause of breast cancer treatment failure. Therefore, studying the molecular mechanisms of tumor invasion, metastasis, and treatment tolerance, is vital for understanding the immanent causes of tumor progression, adopting corresponding precise anti-tumor strategies, and ultimately improving the patients' prognosis.

The overarching goals of this Research Topic are to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying tumor metastasis and therapy resistance in breast cancer, screen and identify key molecular pathways, and ultimately develop a new strategy to translate preclinical laboratory findings into clinical trials and help improve the prevention or comprehensive therapy of breast cancer.

We welcome submissions of Original Research, Review, and Mini Review articles focusing on, but not limited to, the following aspects:

• Identification of novel master genes or signaling pathways in breast cancer, and exploration of their potential as therapeutic targets for metastasis and drug resistance

• Screening of biomarkers for predicting metastasis, therapy response evaluation, and prognosis in breast cancer

• The role of regulatory aberration of the tumor microenvironment in immunotherapy response, chemoresistance, and distant metastasis in breast cancer

• The cancer stem cells in DNA damage response and drug resistance in breast cancer therapy

• The role of epigenetics and its crosstalk in breast cancer invasion, metastasis, and treatment progression

• Novel therapeutic strategies and solutions for tumor tolerance

Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent 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.