Contribution of Cancer-Targeting Drugs toward Faster Clinical Application 3.0

Dear Colleagues,

Various cancer-targeting drugs (synthesized small molecules, natural products, antibodies, etc.) have been developed over the decades. These include: 1. general chemotherapeutic drugs that inhibit cell division and growth; 2. specific protein-targeting drugs that block overexpressed growth signaling, the abnormal production of ATP energy, or cancer-generated angiogenesis; and 3. cellular immunotherapeutic drugs that provide an enhanced attack on cancer cells.

However, in many cases, cancer cells have developed resistance to current cancer-targeting drugs. It is difficult to treat drug-resistant cancers (P-glycoprotein overexpression or mutations in the growth signaling pathways, apoptotic pathways, or repair system), metastatic cancers, advanced-stage cancers (e.g., ovarian or pancreatic), or stem cell-like cancers using the currently available cancer-targeting drugs. Therefore, it is important to improve existing drugs or generate novel therapeutic options to overcome the failure of current cancer-targeting drugs. Identifying the mechanisms or therapeutic options (single drug or combination therapy) with which to target cancer cells in order to overcome the inefficiencies of current cancer-targeting drugs could lead to the development of better treatment options for patients with cancers that are resistant to the available cancer-targeting drugs.

In this Research Topic, we aim to identify and investigate the novel applications of cancer-targeting drugs, including: 1. products derived from original drugs; 2. drug repositioning; 3. experimental drugs soon to be available for testing in clinical trials; and 4. natural products. In our investigations, we also plan to include the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of combination drug treatments, which offer improvements over current therapies.

We expect that our findings will encourage the faster initiation of clinical trials and their therapeutic application.

Prof. Dr. Sungpil Yoon
Guest Editor

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• anti-cancer drug
• chemotherapy
• molecular targeting
• immunotherapy
• co-treatment
• low toxicity
• resistant cancer
• metastasis
• late-stage cancer
• cancer stem cell