Molecular Biomarkers for Monitoring and Early Detection of Cancers

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure and an honor to invite you to participate in this Special Issue of Biomolecules. “Molecular Biomarkers for Monitoring and Early Detection of Cancers” is dedicated to publishing original research articles, reviews and short communications addressing progress and challenges related to the discovery, characterization, clinical relevance and applications of molecular markers and biomarker panels for cancer screening of the asymptomatic population as well as high-risk patients. 

We particularly welcome manuscripts focusing on liquid biopsies and circulating biomarkers including multiple RNA species, circulating tumor DNA, marker proteins and autoantibodies, and biomarkers associated with circulating extracellular vesicles. This Special Issue of Biomolecules will provide an ideal platform for reporting sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values and other performance characteristics of biomarkers for detecting early-stage cancers and precancerous lesions. The scope of this Special Issue also includes topics related to feasibility, affordability, clinical translation, screening uptake and regulatory issues involved in cancer screening.

Cancer is the second-largest cause of human disease-related mortality and morbidity worldwide, after cardiovascular diseases. Half a century of accelerated developments in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, other 'omics' and data sciences has provided an unprecedented boost to molecular-centered approaches to medicine and diagnostics. Molecular evolution, molecular display and recombinant technologies surpass traditional drug discovery and have led to many targeted cancer therapeutics. This includes various targeted therapies with new immunotherapy techniques in various cancers. With few exceptions, no molecular screening tools are available yet for use with asymptomatic individuals with the purpose of detecting pre-cancerous or early cancer stages. Early cancer detection reduces patients' mortality and is essential for improving survival rates. There is currently an urgent need for proficient diagnostic biomarkers for all cancers to enable an easy non-invasive way of diagnosing cancers at an early stage and improve overall survival rates.

This Special Issue will provide a forum for medical and research communities to share the latest discoveries, advances and clinical applications of molecular screening tests for breast, bladder, cervical, colorectal, liver, lung, ovarian, esophageal, prostate, stomach and thyroid cancers, including multi-cancer screening approaches.

Dr. Mikhail Soloviev
Dr. Faddy Kamel
Guest Editors

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. Biomolecules 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 2700 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.

• cancer markers
• circulating biomarkers
• marker panels
• liquid biopsy
• proteomics
• genomics
• metabolomics
• artificial intelligence
• positive predictive value