Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Disease Progression and Resistance to Therapy in Digestive Cancers

Dear Colleagues,

Digestive cancers are the most common and deadliest malignancies worldwide. Globocan estimates that nearly 5 000 000 new cases (both sex, all ages) were detected in 2020 (colorectal cancer being the most common with 1 900 000 cases, representing 10% of cancers; stomach cancer: 1 000 000 cases, liver cancer: 900 000 cases, esophageal cancer: 600 000 cases and pancreas: 500 000 cases) and 3 500 000 persons died because of these cancers. These poor outcomes are related to a lack of efficient therapeutic tools and early diagnostic markers. This is mandatory to decipher the cellular mechanisms (cell signalling, transcriptional and epigenetic regulation, metabolic reprograming, microenvironment reprogramming) that promote the carcinogenetic sequence. This knowledge will allow improving identification of precancerous lesions and proposing new therapeutic targets. Additionally, innate and acquired resistance to therapy also worsen the efficacy of the drugs, immunotherapy or radiotherapy. A better understanding of these biological responses may help clinicians to propose more efficient therapies.

This Special Issue aims to summarize the current knowledge on molecular mechanisms underlying cancer progression with a special emphasis about resistance to therapy.

Dr. Nicolas Jonckheere
Guest Editor

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• digestive cancer
• therapy resistance
• molecular and cellular mechanisms
• transcriptional and epigenetic regulation
• drug metabolism