Dear Colleagues,

Since the discovery of recombinant DNA technology and our increasing ability to transfer gene(s) from organism to organism, the idea of gene therapy to cure inherited human diseases took shape. As the structures and biology of the common bacteria and viruses infecting humans became known, they were engineered to carry therapeutic genes of interest and deliver them in desired tissues/organs. After some initial hurdles, gene therapy has come a long way, as evidenced by the growing number of clinical trials and approvals by the FDA and the EMA for clinical use. In contrast, cancer gene therapy is in the works with modest success, which is primarily due to heterogeneity in the disease process. Gene therapy can be a game changer for the treatment of cancers, mainly childhood cancers in offering long-term cures. CAR-T cell therapy, which was recently approved for human use for certain blood cancers, is an extension of gene therapy involving genetic modification of patient’s T-cells ex vivo to efficiently recognize and kill cancer cells when given back to the patient. There is room for improvement, and the race is on to extend its scope to solid tumors. In this Special Issue, we will celebrate your original research or review articles enriching the promise of gene- and cell-based therapies in cancer. IJMS MDPI is a peer-reviewed open-access journal with a high impact factor representing a great way to reach out to a broad readership who can also immensely benefit from your work. Therefore, we are encouraging you to submit your valuable observations, findings and vision to IJMS. Thank you.

The topics of interest for our Special Issue include but are not limited to:

1. Technological advancements in vector design for cancer gene therapy;
2. Application of gene and cell therapy in different cancer types;
3. Use of gene editing technologies in cancer treatments;
4. Induced pluripotent stem-cell-based cancer therapies;
5. Tumor-specific gene targeting methods;
6. Immunomodulation in cancer treatments;
7. Cancer cell reprogramming by gene transfers 

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• cancer
• oncology
• metastasis
• stem cells
• gene therapy
• cell therapy
• immunotherapy
• CRISPR-cas9
• gene editing
• induced pluripotent stem cells