Critical Targets and Therapeutic Strategies of Breast Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women and remains a significant scientific and clinical in the realm of public health. Recent technological advances in molecular biology and biochemical approaches have allowed the dissection of tumor heterogeneity and complexity, highlighting the specific pathophysiology of different types of breast cancer. 
However, the challenges still to be overcome before we reach the goal of an effective personalized medicine are the lack of prognostic and predictive biomarkers for all breast cancer subtypes and the emergence of therapeutic resistance mechanisms. Indeed, the development of chemo- or radioresistance, and more recently also resistance to immunotherapy, can be attributed to tumor microenvironments components, epigenetic changes, and alterations of the cell signaling pathways/genes associated with the activity of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Thus, further studies that contribute to providing a more detailed picture of the cytological differences of breast cancer cells of different subtypes and during the various phases of tumor progression could also have a strong impact on the clinical setting.
The main scope of this Special Issue addresses a thorough update of recent biological observations including, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Markers characterizing the various breast tumor subtypes;
• Cellular responses in terms of morphological and functional changes during the breast cancer progression;
• Immune cell crosstalk with tumor cells in the breast tumor environment;
• Epigenetic changes during malignant transformation and progression;
• Impact of lifestyle changes on breast cancer cells features; 
• Molecular drivers behind breast cancer subtypes and tumor heterogeneity;
• Biomarkers for chemosensitivity and radiosensitivity.

Dr. Francesca Bianchi
Dr. Alessandra Cataldo
Guest Editors

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• biomarkers
• microenvironment
• subtypes
• dormancy
• therapy
• resistance