About this Research Topic
Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, the group of cancers that affect the gastrointestinal tract and other organs that are contained within the digestive system, including the esophagus, pancreas, stomach, colon, rectum, anus, liver, biliary system and small intestine, is the most common malignant diseases with high mortality rates, leading to a substantial burden on public health and healthcare systems around the world. Diverse subtypes of GI cancer impressively exhibit similar characteristics like high frequency oncogenic mutation burden, early metastatic potency, chemo-resistance and immunotherapeutic tolerance indicating a possible unique tumorigenic mechanism.
Tumorigenesis is the gain of malignant properties in normal cells, including primarily dedifferentiation, fast proliferation, metastasis, evasion of apoptosis and immunosurveillance, dysregulated metabolism and epigenetics, etc., which have been generalized as the hallmarks of cancer. Although the underlying molecular mechanisms in GI cancer have been studied extensively, there are still many questions remaining poorly understood. Moreover, since therapeutic strategies are extremely limited in certain subtypes of GI cancer (e.g. pancreatic cancer), the 5-year survival of patients is a mere 5% or less.
This Research Topic aims to uncover the still unclear underlying molecular mechanisms for gastrointestinal tumorigenesis and metastasis, as well as report the latest progress related to new biomarkers, therapeutic targets and development of new treatment strategies which will contribute to improved therapeutic efficacy and prognosis for gastrointestinal cancer patients.
We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Perspective and Opinion articles, focusing on but not limited to:
-Mechanism studies of oncogenic signaling regulating gastrointestinal tumorigenesis and metastasis
-Predictive biomarkers for early diagnosis or optimizing GI cancer patients’ selection criteria for clinical treatment
-Unveil underlying mechanisms (e.g. oncogenic/transcriptional factors, non-coding RNAs/microRNA, or tumor microenvironment related) in GI cancer chemoresistance and immunotherapeutic tolerance
-The construction and application of in vivo/in vitro research models (organoid) in investigating the molecular mechanisms or evaluating drug susceptibility
-Novel therapeutic target discovery in GI cancer
Tumorigenesis is the gain of malignant properties in normal cells, including primarily dedifferentiation, fast proliferation, metastasis, evasion of apoptosis and immunosurveillance, dysregulated metabolism and epigenetics, etc., which have been generalized as the hallmarks of cancer. Although the underlying molecular mechanisms in GI cancer have been studied extensively, there are still many questions remaining poorly understood. Moreover, since therapeutic strategies are extremely limited in certain subtypes of GI cancer (e.g. pancreatic cancer), the 5-year survival of patients is a mere 5% or less.
This Research Topic aims to uncover the still unclear underlying molecular mechanisms for gastrointestinal tumorigenesis and metastasis, as well as report the latest progress related to new biomarkers, therapeutic targets and development of new treatment strategies which will contribute to improved therapeutic efficacy and prognosis for gastrointestinal cancer patients.
We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Perspective and Opinion articles, focusing on but not limited to:
-Mechanism studies of oncogenic signaling regulating gastrointestinal tumorigenesis and metastasis
-Predictive biomarkers for early diagnosis or optimizing GI cancer patients’ selection criteria for clinical treatment
-Unveil underlying mechanisms (e.g. oncogenic/transcriptional factors, non-coding RNAs/microRNA, or tumor microenvironment related) in GI cancer chemoresistance and immunotherapeutic tolerance
-The construction and application of in vivo/in vitro research models (organoid) in investigating the molecular mechanisms or evaluating drug susceptibility
-Novel therapeutic target discovery in GI cancer
Keywords: Gastrointestinal cancer, Molecular oncology, Metastasis, Therapeutic resistance, Novel therapy
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
