Topic: Targeting Signaling Pathway to Overcome Drug Resistance for Cancer Therapy

Resistance to therapy is major challenge of the clinical management of cancer patients. Recent approaches have shown how  intra-tumoral heterogeneity (ITH) is a major propeller of drug resistance, because of the clonal evolution and the consequent broad spectrum of stress- adaptive mechanisms set in place in therapy-challenged tumors. Omics approaches, including  transcriptomic, genomic, proteomics and metabolomics analysis and  targeted at both cancer cells and tumor microenvironment, are expected to greatly contribute knowledge of resistance mechanisms to overcome such a challenge. Another critical point is the choice of relevant sources and experimental settings to study resistance to therapy. This broadly covers in vitro cell culturing up to 3D cultures and organoids, with the last two holding more promise due to the ability to keep a more intact genetic makeup of the originating specimen. Current efforts to overcome cancer drug resistance do need to consider, on one hand, the high need for novel agents and, on the other hand, potential for drug repositioning and sequencing of treatments. This requires a tighter than ever interaction between basic, translational and clinical scientist and to this interdisciplinary audience is devoted this Special Issue of Cancer Drug Resistance.