Editorial: chemical innovative approaches in cancer molecular medicine and translational clinical research

Cancer is considered a multifactorial pathology, whose understanding involves genomic and epigenomic studies supplemented by biochemical, biological, molecular, and epidemiological data. Current cancer research strategies are based on the paradigm of “targeted” therapies. Targeted cancer therapies are drugs or other substances that block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules (“molecular targets”) that are involved in growth, progression, and spread of cancer. Many targeted cancer therapies have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat specific types of cancer. Others are being studied in advanced clinical trials, and many more are in preclinical and clinical testing. Despite recent progress in regression or control for a wide variety of tumors, some cancers do not respond to current therapeutic patterns, showing limited 5-year survival rates, high recurrence, and frequent relapse and metastases, making them big killers. Indeed, combined efforts between biologists, chemists, and oncologists are required to provide novel therapeutic options for patients and to achieve precision medicine based on the molecular integrated metabolic and (epi)genome signature. A big deal of results has been published regarding cancers and their treatments, thus representing a very prosperous area of drug discovery. Despite the significant amount of drug discoveries in the vast field of cancer therapy, there is still an urgent need for novel and innovative treatments. Efficacy and safety of the therapy are a major concern and significant advances in structural biology and bioinformatics in the last 20 years gave medicinal chemists a well-filled toolbox for the design of innovative drugs using the most advanced techniques working closely together with biochemists, biologists, and other medical-related researchers to develop next generation anticancer therapies. In the present special issue, various aspects of modern approaches in cancer therapy have been either summarized in comprehensive review articles or published as original articles.