Genome Medicine called for submissions to our Collection focusing on genome instability in cancer.
Tumor initiation, progression, and evolution are often rooted in the malfunctioning of the checkpoints securing genome integrity. Genome instability is a hallmark of cancer, and gives tumor cells many selective advantages, accelerating the evolutionary processes which allow cancers to thrive.
Maintaining the genomic machinery is not a flawless process: DNA damage, genotoxic stresses, and defects in the repair pathways can all contribute to destabilizing the complex molecular networks keeping the genome intact. Greater understanding of the biology of cancer has led, over the years, to a deeper knowledge of the mechanisms safeguarding genome stability and the many ways in which these can fail. Considering this intrinsic relationship, targeting cancer genomic instability with therapeutics has potential to improve the lives of cancer patients.
In this Collection, guest edited by Christopher Lord and Timothy Yap, we aim to highlight insights that expand upon our mechanistic knowledge of DNA damage, repair, integrity, and stability as well as research that leverages these concepts to ultimately target cancer at the bedside. We invited the submission of manuscripts with significant clinical and translational impact, dealing with the broader field of genome instability, including:
• DNA damage and repair;
• Responses to genotoxic stresses;
• Tumor mutation profiling and genome structural rearrangements;
• Aging, senescence, somatic mutation and their impact on cancer development;
• Diagnostic tools, risk and prognosis prediction, patient stratification;
• Response, resistance and sensitization to therapy;
• Clinical trials and models for therapeutic actionability;
• Combination approaches, including chemotherapies, radiotherapies and immunotherapies.
We encouraged work that fosters academic-industry partnerships and collaboration among scientists from multi-disciplinary fields.
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