Special Issue

Genetic Heterogeneity in Cancer

Submission Deadline: November 30, 2018 (Closed)

Guest Editor

Kakoli Das, PhD

Program in Cancer and Stem Cell Biology, Duke-NUS Medical School, 8 College Road, Singapore 169857

Website | E-Mail

Research Interests: cancer genomics, molecular genetics, genetic heterogeneity, precision medicine

About This Topic

Genetic heterogeneity in cancer is defined as the occurrence of genetic variation between tumors (inter tumor) and/or within individual tumors (intra tumor) partly due to genomic instability. The genomic instability may arise due to increased mutation rates, chromosomal instability, and microsatellite instability, exposure to mutagens such as smoking, UV rays and radiation. Each of these causes may have a significant impact on cancer genomes resulting in diversity within a tumor that may lead to different clinical outcomes and response to therapies. Recent cancer genomic studies, based on approaches such as multi-region profiling or ultra-deep sequencing have revealed varying degrees of genetic heterogeneity in different tumor types.Understanding tumor heterogeneity has been highlighted as a critical area for translational cancer research.

In this special issue of OBM Genetics, we have chosen topics that highlight the causes and implications of genetic heterogeneity in cancer of different types, methods to identify genetic heterogeneity in cancer, tackling genetic heterogeneity and suggest treatment strategies. Overall, this issue provides a complete understanding of the genetic heterogeneity driven by genomic instability, ways to limit genetic heterogeneity and tackle drug resistance in cancer.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted through the LIDSEN Submission System. Detailed information on manuscript preparation and submission is available in the Instructions for Authors. All submitted articles will be thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process and will be processed following the Editorial Process and Quality Control policy. Upon acceptance, the article will be immediately published in a regular issue of the journal and will be listed together on the special issue website, with a label that the article belongs to the Special Issue. LIDSEN distributes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License in an open-access model. The authors own the copyright to the article, and the article can be free to access, distribute, and reuse provided that the original work is correctly cited.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). Research articles and review articles are highly invited. Authors are encouraged to send the tentative title and abstract of the planned paper to the Editorial Office (genetics@lidsen.com) for record. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office.

Welcome your submission!

Publication

Open Access Review RNA Editors and DNA Mutators: Cancer Heterogeneity Through Sequence Diversification by Rafail Nikolaos Tasakis  , F. Nina Papavasiliou  and Rita Shaknovich Received: 03 December 2018;  Published: 08 April 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1902072 Abstract Cancer development and progression is strongly associated with somatic mutations. From oncogenic hits that initiate the primary tumor formation till metastasis, the tumor mutational burden (TBM) plays a prominent role in disease progression for the vast majority of cancer types. Heterogeneous mutational loads or genetic heterogeneity not onl [...]

Open Access Opinion Clonal Heterogeneity in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and the Possible Role in Predicting Response to Treatment with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors by Annapaola Mariniello  and Silvia Novello Received: 15 November 2018;  Published: 22 March 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1901069 Abstract Immune oncology treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is revolutionizing therapeutic approach for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, in terms of longer survival and improved quality of life. To date, the widely used and approved biomarker is programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on tumour cells, but it [...]