Cancer is a multifaceted disease and research over decades has sequentially broadened our understanding of the mechanisms which underlie its development, progression and resistance against wide ranging molecular
therapeutics. Data obtained through in-vitro studies and xenografted mice based investigations clearly suggested that inactivation of tumor suppressor genes, overexpression of oncogenes, imbalance of pro- and
anti-apoptotic proteins, loss of apoptosis, dysregulation of spatio-temporally controlled intracellular signaling cascades, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, intra-
tumor heterogeneity are significantly involved in regulation of different steps of
cancer. Recently emerging information is also shedding light on considerable role of
microRNAs in
cancer and we have seen an exponential growth in the list of
tumor suppressor and oncogenic
miRNAs. Amirkhah et al, described how
miRNAs regulated resistance mechanisms against different
therapeutics in
colorectal cancer. Nosheen Masood and Muhammad Zahid Qureshi emphasized on intricate interplay between Notch signaling and different
miRNAs in
head and neck cancer. Gasparri et al discussed new frontiers in therapeutic targets in
ovarian cancer with spotlight on
PARP inhibitors. Notch mediated intracellular signaling in
esophageal cancer was comprehensively explained by Wang et al. Resistance mechanisms against TRAIL based
therapeutics were described in detail by Limami et al. The authors gave opinion about different approaches which have been tested in preclinical trials to overcome resistance against TRAIL. Mansoor et al reported that GG genotype in
death receptor 4 played protective role however, CC genotype had a causative role in
colorectal cancer in Pakistani population. Larger pool of patients, sporadic mutations, expression studies will further demystify the association. Hsu et al, extensively described various strategies focusing on how post-translationally modifiable
histones can be targeted for
cancer treatment. Attar et al provided detailed information related to Viscum album against different
cancers. Ahmadi et al studied network structure information and
biological data on
miRNA-and
transcription factor-based gene regulation. Apoptotic cell death is a key mechanism frequently inactivated in
cancer cells and different strategies have been used to re-activate/functionalize apoptotic pathway in
drug resistant phenotype. We have attempted to present most recent landmarks set in
cancer biology and
therapeutics. Sarkar et al review summarized multifunctional roles of ASPP (apoptosis stimulating
proteins of p53) family in
cancer. Smina et al reported that
Hesperetin, a
flavonoid effectively induced apoptosis in
skin cancer cell line. Chong et al experimentally verified that
lipid accumulation may not only induce pro-inflammatory responses in hepatocytes but also activate CSC-like properties of
hepatoma cells through NFκB activation. The present thematic issue brings to limelight most recent advancements in constantly developing field of molecular oncology.