The Evolving Landscape Clinical Implications And Future Perspective Of Biomarkers In Gastrointestinal Cancers

Research and Clinical Applications of Targeting Gastric Neoplasms provides a comprehensive overview of gastrointestinal cancers, covering preclinical research and clinical findings related to risk factors, current treatment regimens (including immunotherapy), screening/detection methods, etiology of disease, precision medicine and future perspectives. Gastrointestinal cancers rank among the most lethal and common worldwide, and as such, there is intense research into their diverse causes and treatment options. This reference provides a consolidation of the research, making it a perfect resource for basic science and clinical researchers as well as oncologists who work in gastroenterology and GI tract cancer fields. Provides comprehensive coverage of preclinical research and the clinical aspects of gastric cancer Presents future perspectives from leading researchers in the field who provide the potential for furthering research topics Combines the expertise of researchers in GI tracts, cancer, immunity, immunology, infectious disease and microbiology for an interdisciplinary approach

The use of biomarkers in basic and clinical research has become routine in many areas of medicine. They are accepted as molecular signatures that have been well characterized and repeatedly shown to be capable of predicting relevant disease states or clinical outcomes. In Role of Biomarkers in Medicine, expert researchers in their individual field have reviewed many biomarkers or potential biomarkers in various types of diseases. The topics address numerous aspects of medicine, demonstrating the current conceptual status of biomarkers as clinical tools and as surrogate endpoints in clinical research. This book highlights the current state of biomarkers and will aid scientists and clinicians to develop better and more specific biomarkers for disease management.

Significant changes in diet, environment, and population increase gastrointestinal cancer morbidity. A growing number of novel biomarkers and underlying mechanisms are being elucidated, some of which may even conflict with assumptions of past decades. Therefore, collecting recent findings on novel diagnostic/prognostic factors, biomarkers, and/or risk factors in gastrointestinal cancers is a prerequisite for a better understanding of the disease. Despite remarkable progressions in surgical treatments and chemotherapies, the prognosis of gastrointestinal cancer is far from satisfactory due to the high occurrence of drug resistance. Based on the identification of novel biomarkers as well as their underlying mechanisms, targeted drug development will provide significant complementary therapeutic effects to conventional chemoradiotherapies. High-throughput methods such as next-generation sequencing on RNA level and mass spectrometry on protein/lipid/metabolite level serve as efficient strategies for biomarker identification and drug development. This Research Topic aims at presenting recent advances on gastrointestinal cancer biomarkers and their underlying functional mechanisms, providing a better understanding of carcinogenesis, tumor progression, tumor relapse, as well as drug resistance. This will subsequently contribute to the development of novel therapeutic interventions targeting gastrointestinal cancers, thus improving patients' outcomes.

Nowhere is the explosion in comprehensive genomic testing more evident than in oncology. Multiple consensus guidelines now recommend molecular testing as the standard of care for most metastatic tumors. To aid in the advancement of this rapidly changing field, we intend this Special Issue of JPM to focus on technical developments in the genomic profiling of cancer, detail promising somatic alterations that either are, or have a high likelihood of being, relevant in the near future, and to address issues related to the pricing and value of these tests. The last few years have seen the cost of molecular testing decrease by orders of magnitude. In 2018, we saw the first "site-agnostic" drug approvals in cancer (for microsatellite unstable cancer (PD-1 inhibitors) and NTRK-fusions (TRK inhibitors)). Research on targetable mutations, determination of genetic "signatures" that can use multiple individual genes/pathways, development of targeted therapy, and insight into the value of new technology remains at the cutting edge of research in this field. We are soliciting papers that present new technologies to assess predictive biomarkers in cancer, original research (pre-clinical or clinical) that demonstrates promise for particular targeted therapies in cancer, and articles that explore the clinical and financial impacts of this paradigmatic shift in cancer diagnostics and treatment.

In this book we provide insights into liver – cancer and immunology. Experts in the field provide an overview over fundamental immunological questions in liver cancer and tumorimmunology, which form the base for immune based approaches in HCC, which gain increasing interest in the community due to first promising results obtained in early clinical trials. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common cause of cancer related death in the United States. Treatment options are limited. Viral hepatitis is one of the major risk factors for HCC, which represents a typical “inflammation-induced” cancer. Immune-based treatment approaches have revolutionized oncology in recent years. Various treatment strategies have received FDA approval including dendritic cell vaccination, for prostate cancer as well as immune checkpoint inhibition targeting the CTLA4 or the PD1/PDL1 axis in melanoma, lung, and kidney cancer. Additionally, cell based therapies (adoptive T cell therapy, CAR T cells and TCR transduced T cells) have demonstrated significant efficacy in patients with B cell malignancies and melanoma. Immune checkpoint inhibitors in particular have generated enormous excitement across the entire field of oncology, providing a significant benefit to a minority of patients.

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the US and the third most recently linked to cancer deaths. The national annual incidence rate of colorectal cancer is approximately 148,000+, striking slightly more females than males. The lifetime risk of colorectal cancer is 5-6%, however patients with a familial risk (with two or more first or second degree relatives) make up 20% of the patients. Persons who carry genetic mutations linked to hereditary colorectal cancer are the most likely to develop the disease.