Journal: Current Cancer Drug Targets
Guest editor(s):Dr. Mario Sznol

Introduction

With the development of disciplines such as chemical biology and molecular biology, the genes or proteins closely related to tumor occurrence and development have gradually become clear. Targeted therapies targeting these genes or proteins provide more effective methods for tumor treatment. Tumor targeted drugs generally only act on specific targets and only require a lower dose to inhibit target proteins and kill cancer cells. Compared to traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy methods, targeted therapy is efficient and has significant therapeutic effects. Although targeted drugs have significant advantages in clinical treatment of malignant tumors, there are also some limitations. After using targeted drugs for a period of time, patients are prone to develop resistance to the drug, greatly affecting the clinical efficacy of targeted drugs. Drug resistance is still a not to be overlooked complication in the field of oncology making successful cancer treatment regimens a real challenge. It occurs in all cancer types and in all treatments, including targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy. the underlying mechanisms behind drug resistance are diverse and often co-exist between tumor bulks. It is crucial to understand the evolution and mechanisms behind drug resistance in specific cancers, thus allowing the ad hoc design of new drugs able, to prevent or/and contrast primary or secondary drug resistance. This special issue aims to provide an overview of the current state of the art ways to overcome drug resistance, focus on newly designed drugs and combined treatments as well as new strategies that can target drug resistance or show a particular efficiency against drug resistant cells.

Keywords

Chemoresistance, tumor drug resistance, targeting drug, new anticancer drugs, drug development, cancer therapy