Biomarkers and Personalized Therapy in Solid Tumors

Dear Colleagues, 

All human malignancies are primarily due to genomic alterations. It is important to identify molecular genomic alterations and their effects on core signaling pathways which describe carcinomatosis, tumor behavior, biologic tumor heterogeneity, tumor response to therapy and ultimately patient outcomes.

Along with multimodality treatment for these cancers, an emerging practice of medicine called ‘personalized medicine’ has proven an essential component of cancer treatment. Personalized medicine uses a cancer patient’s genetic profile to guide treatment decisions to maximize individual therapeutic benefits. These advancements in molecular genomic profiling provide insight into the molecular heterogeneity of different malignancies, predict clinical outcomes, help develop new therapeutic rationale for cancer treatments, and aid the discovery of new therapeutic options for patients.

In this era of personalized medicine, a wide spectrum of molecular techniques and methodologies are being developed to identify the genomic diversity of tumors, including but not limited to protein expression (via IHC) in the tissue and the proteomic analysis of the serum, plasma, peripheral blood, urine, saliva, and other body secretions to generate proteomic fingerprint information to predict outcomes in many malignancies.

This Special Issue presents cutting-edge research and clinical advancements in biomarkers in solid tumors. Original papers are especially encouraged; however, high-level systematic reviews or meta-analyses will also be considered for publication.

Dr. Manik A. Amin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Personalized Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• personalized medicine
• biomarker
• solid tumor
• genomic profiling
• molecular techniques

Title: Evolving Management of Breast Cancer in Era of Predictive Biomarkers and Precision Medicine
Authors: Muhammad Zubair Afzal; Linda T. Vahdat
Affiliation: 1Medical Oncology, Comprehensive Breast Program 2 Section Chief, Medical Oncology and Hematology (Interim) Professor of Medicine Alma Hass Milham Distinguished Chair in Clinical Medicine
Abstract: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the world as well as in the United States. Molecular and histological differentiation have helped the clinicians to optimize treatments with a variety of therapeutics including hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy.. Recently, immunotherapy has become standard of care therapy in triple negative breast cancer and an option across molecular subtypes for tumors with a high tumor mutation burden. Despite the advancements in personalized medicine directing management for localized and advanced breast cancers, emergence of resistance to these therapies is the leading cause of death among breast cancer patients. Therefore, there is a critical need to identify and validate predictive biomarkers to direct treatment selection, identify potential responders, and emerging resistance to standard therapies. Areas of active scientific and clinical research include novel personalized and predictive biomarkers incorporating tumor microenvironment, tumor immune profiling, molecular characterization, histopathological differentiation to predict response and potential emergence of resistance.