The Role of Environmental Pollutants in Cancer and Chemoresistance

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental pollutants are substances released into the ecosystem that cause major health problems in living beings exposed to them. It has been suggested that these pollutants are responsible for about 9 million deaths per year, which corresponds to 16% of all deaths in the world. In fact, the number of deaths is three times higher than that of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Due to the ubiquity of environmental pollutants and their resistance to degradation, populations are exposed to them on a daily basis. For example, atmospheric air, plastic containers for food and drink, cosmetics, sunscreens, perfumes, cleaning products, and garden products contain pollutants. Therefore, these compounds can enter our body through different routes: with food, by inhalation, or through the skin. Once inside the body, pollutants can bioaccumulate, promote oxidative stress, inflammation, genomic alterations and mutations, epigenetic alterations, mitochondrial dysfunction, endocrine disruption, alteration of intercellular communication, modification of the communities of the microbiome, and impairment of nervous system function. Several epidemiological findings and the description of the mechanisms linking toxic substances to disease development have suggested that exposure to some pollutants, even at concentrations low or very low, may lead to a risk of developing cancer and/or accelerate its progression. This relationship could be explained by the fact that some environmental pollutants can promote sustained growth by affecting the cell cycle; prevent apoptosis by preventing the activation of intrinsic and/or extrinsic pathways; promote angiogenesis, facilitating the secretion of factors such as VEGF, FGF, and TNF-α; activate metastasis formation by stimulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the secretion of metalloproteases. Although much has been achieved in recent years to develop knowledge about the role of environmental pollutants in cancer, the effects of these compounds on the treatment of cancer patients are little known, especially when these are related to the reduced efficacy of chemotherapy drugs and therefore the onset of chemoresistance.

To clarify the possible molecular mechanisms by which environmental pollutants affect the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs and negatively affect patients' clinical prognosis, this Special Issue seeks to provide clear and reliable information on the effects of pollutants on the ability of cancer cells to evade the efficacy of therapeutic agents.

Prof. Dr. Fabio Altieri
Dr. Margherita Eufemi
Guest Editors

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• environmental pollutants
• cancer cells
• therapeutic agents