The 150 most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology series: questions 57–66

Abstract

Since the beginning of 2017, Chinese Journal of Cancer has published a series of important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology, which sparkle diverse thoughts, interesting communications, and potential collaborations among researchers all over the world. In this article, 10 more questions are presented as followed. Question 57. What are the major stresses that drive the formation, progression, and metastasis of a cancer? Question 58. What is the mechanism responsible for altering an acidic intracellular pH and a basic extracellular pH in normal tissue cells to a basic intracellular pH and an acidic extracellular pH in cancer cells, a fundamental and yet largely ignored phenomenon? Question 59. Where are the tumor-associated plasma microRNAs from in cancer patients? Question 60. Can we identify mechanisms employed by tumor subpopulations to evade standard therapies and seed relapse/metastatic tumors before treatment? Question 61. Why are mutation rates in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (ERBB2) higher in lung cancer from never smokers than that from smokers? Question 62. Does tumor vasculogenic mimicry contribute to the resistance against antiangiogenic therapy in renal cancer? Question 63. What molecular targeted drugs would be effective for non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC), especially metastatic papillary RCC and chromophobe RCC? Question 64. Can it be more effective by targeting both the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) and MET signaling pathways in sporadic metastatic papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC)? Question 65. What are the predictive biomarkers that may be used to identify the renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients who can benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment? Question 66. How do we identify predictive molecular biomarkers to stratify clear cell renal cell carcinoma patients for targeted therapies?

HHLA2 and PD-L1 co-expression predicts poor prognosis in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma

“…6 However, the objective response rates were only 25%-42% with nivolumab or even combined with ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4) in advanced RCC, indicating alternative immunosuppressive checkpoints or pathways disrupting immunosurveillance in ccRCC. 5 6 In this perspective, it is of great significance for the guidance of clinical immunotherapy to establish a suitable immunophenotyping system to predict patients who will respond to immune checkpoint blockades 7 .…”

The 150 most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology series: questions 67–75

“…To accelerate our endeavors to overcome cancer, Chinese Journal of Cancer has launched a program of publishing 150 most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology [ 1 ]. Since the beginning of 2017, Chinese Journal of Cancer has published a series of important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology [ 2 – 10 ], which sparkle diverse thoughts, interesting communications, and potential collaborations among researchers all over the world. In this article, Questions 67–75 are selected and presented.…”