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Genome Editing and the Future of Personalized and Targeted Cancer Medicine

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Many human diseases, including cancer, have their etiology in genome alterations. Completion of the human genome project and the development of next generation sequencing technologies with single cell resolution will lead to routine complete genome mapping of cancer patients in the future. Genome editing is based on unique properties shared by mega-nucleases, zinc-finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases, and the CRISPR/Cas9 system and their ability to generate cuts in the human genome at specific targeted sites thereby allowing replacement of defective DNA with a corrected sequence. Although still in its infancy, these technologies have the potential to revolutionize medicine and patient care.

Molecular Cancer is excited to present a series of original research and review articles related to genome editing and reprogramming.

  2. Liver metastasis is the leading cause of death in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Emerge evidence suggests that circular RNA (circRNA) is a pivotal player in cancer progression. However, its role in CRC...

    Authors: Kaixuan Zeng, Jianhong Peng, Yue Xing, Linjie Zhang, Peishan Zeng, Weihao Li, Weili Zhang, Zhizhong Pan, Chi Zhou and Junzhong Lin
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:202
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Vascular invasion is a major route for intrahepatic and distant metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and is a strong negative prognostic factor. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles in tumorig...

    Authors: Liangliang Xu, Peng Wang, Li Li, Lian Li, Yang Huang, Yanfang Zhang, Xiaobo Zheng, Pengsheng Yi, Ming Zhang and Mingqing Xu
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:174
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Skin cancer is a global threat to the healthcare system and is estimated to incline tremendously in the next 20 years, if not diagnosed at an early stage. Even though it is curable at an early stage, novel dru...

    Authors: Nazeer Hasan, Arif Nadaf, Mohammad Imran, Umme Jiba, Afsana Sheikh, Waleed H. Almalki, Salem Salman Almujri, Yousuf Hussain Mohammed, Prashant Kesharwani and Farhan Jalees Ahmad
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:168
    Content type: Review Published on:

  5. Multidrug resistance renders treatment failure in a large proportion of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients that require multimodal therapy involving chemotherapy in conjunction with surgery...

    Authors: Neha Khera, Asvika Soodhalaagunta Rajkumar, Khlood Abdulkader M Alkurdi, Zhiao Liu, Hong Ma, Ahmad Waseem and Muy-Teck Teh
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:146
    Content type: Correspondence Published on:

  6. Acute leukemias represent deadly malignancies that require better treatment. As a challenge, treatment is counteracted by a microenvironment protecting dormant leukemia stem cells.

    Authors: Ehsan Bahrami, Jan Philipp Schmid, Vindi Jurinovic, Martin Becker, Anna-Katharina Wirth, Romina Ludwig, Sophie Kreissig, Tania Vanessa Duque Angel, Diana Amend, Katharina Hunt, Rupert Öllinger, Roland Rad, Joris Maximilian Frenz, Maria Solovey, Frank Ziemann, Matthias Mann…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:107
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that specifically target mutational points in the EGFR gene have significantly reduced suffering and provided greater relief to patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). The t...

    Authors: Kai Li, Zi-Yang Peng, Rui Wang, Xiang Li, Ning Du, Da-Peng Liu, Jia Zhang, Yun-Feng Zhang, Lei Ma, Ye Sun, Shou-Ching Tang, Hong Ren, Yi-Ping Yang and Xin Sun
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:103
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Hypoxia is a hallmark of solid tumors and leads to the metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells. The role of epigenetic regulation between hypoxia and aberrant cholesterol metabolism in colorectal cancer (CRC) ...

    Authors: Li Xiong, Hua-shan Liu, Chi Zhou, Xin Yang, Liang Huang, Hai-qing Jie, Zi-wei Zeng, Xiao-bin Zheng, Wen-xin Li, Zhan-zhen Liu, Liang Kang and Zhen-xing Liang
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:72
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) and their receptors (FGFRs) play a crucial role in cell fate and angiogenesis, with dysregulation of the signaling axis driving tumorigenesis. Therefore, many studies have targ...

    Authors: Ruiwen Ruan, Li Li, Xuan Li, Chunye Huang, Zhanmin Zhang, Hongguang Zhong, Shaocheng Zeng, Qianqian Shi, Yang Xia, Qinru Zeng, Qin Wen, Jingyi Chen, Xiaofeng Dai, Jianping Xiong, Xiaojun Xiang, Wan Lei…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:60
    Content type: Review Published on:

  11. Endometrial cancer (EC) is one of the most common gynecologic cancers and its incidence is rising globally. Although advanced EC has a poor prognosis; diagnosing EC at an earlier stage could improve long-term ...

    Authors: Yufei Shen, Wenqing Yang, Jiachen Liu and Yu Zhang
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:53
    Content type: Review Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Molecular Cancer 2023 22:76

  12. Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor that threatens women's health. Attention has been paid on the study of long- non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in breast cancer. However, the specific mechanism remains n...

    Authors: Yunxiang Zhang, Xiaotong Dong, Xiangyu Guo, Chunsen Li, Yanping Fan, Pengju Liu, Dawei Yuan, Xialin Ma, Jingru Wang, Jie Zheng, Hongli Li and Peng Gao
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:41
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. The incidence and mortality of cancer are the major health issue worldwide. Apart from the treatments developed to date, the unsatisfactory therapeutic effects of cancers have not been addressed by broadening ...

    Authors: Zaoqu Liu, Meixin Shi, Yuqing Ren, Hui Xu, Siyuan Weng, Wenjing Ning, Xiaoyong Ge, Long Liu, Chunguang Guo, Mengjie Duo, Lifeng Li, Jing Li and Xinwei Han
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2023 22:35
    Content type: Review Published on:

  14. Cancer drug resistance represents the main obstacle in cancer treatment. Drug-resistant cancers exhibit complex molecular mechanisms to hit back therapy under pharmacological pressure. As a reversible epigenet...

    Authors: Zaoqu Liu, Haijiao Zou, Qin Dang, Hui Xu, Long Liu, Yuyuan Zhang, Jinxiang Lv, Huanyun Li, Zhaokai Zhou and Xinwei Han
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:220
    Content type: Review Published on:

  15. Brain cancer is regarded among the deadliest forms of cancer worldwide. The distinct tumor microenvironment and inherent characteristics of brain tumor cells virtually render them resistant to the majority of ...

    Authors: Xuchen Qi, Saurabh Kumar Jha, Niraj Kumar Jha, Saikat Dewanjee, Abhijit Dey, Rahul Deka, Pingal Pritam, Kritika Ramgopal, Weiting Liu and Kaijian Hou
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:204
    Content type: Review Published on:

  16. Chimeric fusion transcription factors are oncogenic hallmarks of several devastating cancer entities including pediatric sarcomas, such as Ewing sarcoma (EwS) and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS). Despite thei...

    Authors: Tilman L. B. Hölting, Florencia Cidre-Aranaz, Dana Matzek, Bastian Popper, Severin J. Jacobi, Cornelius M. Funk, Florian H. Geyer, Jing Li, Ignazio Piseddu, Bruno L. Cadilha, Stephan Ledderose, Jennifer Zwilling, Shunya Ohmura, David Anz, Annette Künkele, Frederick Klauschen…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:199
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. In vivo gene editing of somatic cells with CRISPR nucleases has facilitated the generation of autochthonous mouse tumors, which are initiated by genetic alterations relevant to the human disease and progress a...

    Authors: Nastasja Merle, Sabrina Elmshäuser, Florian Strassheimer, Michael Wanzel, Alexander M. König, Julianne Funk, Michelle Neumann, Katharina Kochhan, Frederik Helmprobst, Axel Pagenstecher, Andrea Nist, Marco Mernberger, André Schneider, Thomas Braun, Tilman Borggrefe, Rajkumar Savai…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:191
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. Lung cancer is one of the fatal cancers worldwide, and over 60% of patients are lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Our clinical data demonstrated that DNA methylation of the promoter region of miR-126-3p was upregula...

    Authors: Lu Liang, Huiyu Cen, Jionghua Huang, Aiping Qin, Wenyan Xu, Siran Wang, Zhijun Chen, Lin Tan, Qiqi Zhang, Xiyong Yu, Xin Yang and Lingmin Zhang
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:186
    Content type: Research Published on:

  19. Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is an aggressive non-Hodgkin T cell lymphoma commonly driven by NPM-ALK. AP-1 transcription factors, cJUN and JUNb, act as downstream effectors of NPM-ALK and transcriptio...

    Authors: I. Garces de los Fayos Alonso, L. Zujo, I. Wiest, P. Kodajova, G. Timelthaler, S. Edtmayer, M. ZrimÅ¡ek, S. Kollmann, C. Giordano, M. Kothmayer, H. A. Neubauer, S. Dey, M. Schlederer, B. S. Schmalzbauer, T. Limberger, C. Probst…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:172
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. Developing a strategy to specifically kill cancer cells without inducing obvious damage to normal cells may be of great clinical significance for cancer treatment. In the present study, we developed a new prec...

    Authors: Junfeng Jiang, Yuanyuan Chen, Li Zhang, Qishu Jin, Liujun Wang, Sha Xu, Kexin Chen, Li Li, Tao Zeng, Xingfei Fan, Tingting Liu, Jiaxi Li, Jinjiang Wang, Chaofeng Han, Fu Gao, Yanyong Yang…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:164
    Content type: Letter to the Editor Published on:

  21. Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Viral Oncogene Homolog (KRAS) is the most frequently mutated oncogene, occurring in a variety of tumor types. Targeting KRAS mutations with drugs is challenging because KRAS is considered u...

    Authors: Chunxiao Zhu, Xiaoqing Guan, Xinuo Zhang, Xin Luan, Zhengbo Song, Xiangdong Cheng, Weidong Zhang and Jiang-Jiang Qin
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:159
    Content type: Review Published on:

  22. Cancer is a type of malignant affliction threatening human health worldwide; however, the molecular mechanism of cancer pathogenesis remains to be elusive. The oncogenic hedgehog (Hh) pathway is a highly evolu...

    Authors: Jia Song, Yuexin Ge, Xiaoyu Sun, Qiutong Guan, Shiqiang Gong, Minjie Wei, Jumin Niu and Lin Zhao
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:115
    Content type: Review Published on:

  23. The tumor microenvironment (TME) is essential for immune escape by tumor cells. It plays essential roles in tumor development and metastasis. The clinical outcomes of tumors are often closely related to indivi...

    Authors: Ke Liu, Jia-Jia Cui, Yan Zhan, Qian-Ying Ouyang, Qi-Si Lu, Dong-Hua Yang, Xiang-Ping Li and Ji-Ye Yin
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:98
    Content type: Review Published on:

  25. Cancer is caused by a combination of genetic and epigenetic abnormalities. Current cancer therapies are limited due to the complexity of their mechanism, underlining the need for alternative therapeutic approa...

    Authors: Sushmaa Chandralekha Selvakumar, K. Auxzilia Preethi, Kehinde Ross, Deusdedit Tusubira, Mohd Wajid Ali Khan, Panagal Mani, Tentu Nageswara Rao and Durairaj Sekar
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:83
    Content type: Review Published on:

  28. CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated protein 9) shows the opportunity to treat a diverse array of untreated various genetic and complicated disorders. Therapeutic g...

    Authors: Mohammed Fatih Rasul, Bashdar Mahmud Hussen, Abbas Salihi, Bnar Saleh Ismael, Paywast Jamal Jalal, Anna Zanichelli, Elena Jamali, Aria Baniahmad, Soudeh Ghafouri-Fard, Abbas Basiri and Mohammad Taheri
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:64
    Content type: Review Published on:

  29. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system provides adaptive immunity against plasmids and phages in prokaryotes. This system inspires the development of a powerful genome engine...

    Authors: Si-Wei Wang, Chao Gao, Yi-Min Zheng, Li Yi, Jia-Cheng Lu, Xiao-Yong Huang, Jia-Bin Cai, Peng-Fei Zhang, Yue-Hong Cui and Ai-Wu Ke
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:57
    Content type: Review Published on:

  30. The overall response of cisplatin-based chemotherapy in bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC) remains unsatisfactory due to the complex pathological subtypes, genomic difference, and drug resistance. The genes th...

    Authors: Zhen-duo Shi, Lin Hao, Xiao-xiao Han, Zhuo-Xun Wu, Kun Pang, Yang Dong, Jia-xin Qin, Guang-yue Wang, Xuan-ming Zhang, Tian Xia, Qing Liang, Yan Zhao, Rui Li, Shao-qi Zhang, Jun-hao Zhang, Jian-gang Chen…
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:37
    Content type: Research Published on:

  31. In recent years, the application of functional genetic immuno-oncology screens has showcased the striking ability to identify potential regulators engaged in tumor-immune interactions. Although these screens h...

    Authors: Yan Li, Chen Yang, Zhicheng Liu, Shangce Du, Susan Can, Hailin Zhang, Linmeng Zhang, Xiaowen Huang, Zhenyu Xiao, Xiaobo Li, Jingyuan Fang, Wenxin Qin, Chong Sun, Cun Wang, Jun Chen and Huimin Chen
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2022 21:2
    Content type: Research Published on:

  33. The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for the development of the Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated nuclease9 (CRI...

    Authors: Huimin Zhang, Chunhong Qin, Changming An, Xiwang Zheng, Shuxin Wen, Wenjie Chen, Xianfang Liu, Zhenghua Lv, Pingchang Yang, Wei Xu, Wei Gao and Yongyan Wu
    Citation: Molecular Cancer 2021 20:126
    Content type: Review Published on: