EDITORIAL article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1628842
This article is part of the Research TopicRepurposed Drugs Targeting Cancer Signaling Pathways: Clinical Insights to Improve Oncologic Therapies Volume IIView all 11 articles
Editorial: Repurposed Drugs Targeting Cancer Signaling Pathways: Clinical Insights to Improve Oncologic Therapies Volume II
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico
- 2Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico, Mexico
- 3Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, Mexico
- 4Universidad Veracruzana, ver, Mexico
- 5UNAM, CDMX, Mexico
- 6Wesleyan University, Middletown, United States
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Drug repurposing in oncology is a strategy that attempts to identify new therapeutic uses of drugs already approved for other diseases to treat cancer. This strategy has gained interest because of its potential to reduce costs and accelerate the development of oncology treatments. This research topic aims to provide information on repositioned drugs in different types of cancer, to personalize and improve cancer therapies. Ten manuscripts in this issue examine various but interconnected aspects of drug repurposing, highlighting the rapid advancement of the field and increasing complexity.Common tumors refer to cancers with high incidence and prevalence across global populations, making them some of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies.These typically include solid tumors such as breast, lung, colorectal, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic, liver, and bladder cancers. Characterized by well-established clinical and biological profiles, these tumors are often supported by robust preclinical models and extensive clinical trial data. Due to their prevalence and clinical impact, they are strong candidates for drug repurposing to enhance outcomes, particularly in resistant cases or when treatment options are limited.In this sense, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is usually an aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancer. On this topic, Carrion-Estrada et al. demonstrated a compelling strategy for targeting TNBC by stabilizing the oncogenic K-Ras4B G13D/PDE6δ complex using novel compounds (C14 and P8). These agents suppressed tumor growth in both in vitro and in vivo models, including resistant TNBC subtypes, highlighting their potential as adjuvant treatments when standard therapies fail (https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2024.1341766). In a related effort to expand treatment options through drug repositioning, Hajihosseini and coworkers conducted a meta-analysis showing that olaparib, typically used in BRCA1/2-mutant breast and ovarian cancer, improved progression-free survival (PFS) when used as monotherapy in lung cancer compared to combination regimens with durvalumab or gefitinib (https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2025.1505889). In parallel, Pernot et al.explored an immunomodulatory approach through the repurposing of sulconazole, an antifungal compound that inhibits PD-1 expression in immune and cancer cells by blocking NF-κB and calcium signaling. The ability of sulconazole to restore immune activity while repressing malignant traits further highlights the value of nontraditional compounds in oncology, especially for immunologically evasive tumors (https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1278630).Complementing these findings, Villegas Vásquez et al. provided a comprehensive review on drug repositioning for ovarian cancer, emphasizing the critical role of cell line and animal models in preclinical drug screening. Although clinical application remains in early stages, these models are key to developing future therapies aimed at improving outcomes in patients with gynecologic cancers (https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2024.1514120).At the genomic level, Martinez-Montiel and colleagues discussed a paradigm shift by focusing on alternative splicing events in prostate cancer. As splicing errors increasingly emerge as hallmarks of malignancy, this review advocates for the development of diagnostics and therapies that target cancer-specific splicing isoforms, an especially timely strategy given the rising global burden of disease in low-resource settings (https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2025.1520985). Additionally, Sánchez-Marín et al. discussed thyroid cancer (TC) at the genomic levels and identified 13 genes with missense mutations and 10 for gene fusions as potential therapeutic targets for drug repositioning. This which represents promising area for
Keywords: Drug Repositioning, Cancer, Signaling Pathways, treatments, Personalizate therapy
Received: 14 May 2025; Accepted: 16 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Campos-Parra, Leyva-Gómez and Padilla-Benavides. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Alma D. Campos-Parra, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico
Teresita Padilla-Benavides, Wesleyan University, Middletown, United States
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