Topic: Bone Microenvironment and Bone Metastasis

Metastasis is a highly complex albeit relatively inefficient process, with bone the dominant site for involvement across a range of solid tumours. The multiple interactions within the bone microenvironment from the earliest phases when establishment of the pre-metastatic niche occurs, through tumour cell homing, dormancy and subsequent reactivation leading to overt metastasis are of great interest and our knowledge from ever more sophisticated preclinical models is unraveling the complex biological processes involved. For several decades there has been interest in the potential of bone-targeted agents, through their profound effects on bone physiology, to modify the process of metastasis and have effects on important disease outcomes such as recurrence and survival. This hypothesis has been the focus of extensive laboratory and clinical research in a several tumour types with variable results. This Special Issue aims to bring together the recent progress made from across laboratory and clinical settings and set out challenges for future research and clinical trials to try and minimise the enormous clinical burden associated with metastatic bone disease.

Areas for consideration include:
Bone metastases (pathophysiology, epidemiology, diagnostics, clinical features, prevention, treatment).
Preclinical models of metastasis.
Bone microenvironment in cancer (stem cell, bone cell and cancer interactions).
Bone targeted therapy (pharmacology, therapeutic targets, drug development, clinical trials).
Bone imaging (clinical and animal, skeletal interventional radiology).
Bone biomarkers (clinical and translational applications).

30 Sep 2021