Targeting the (un)usual suspects in cancer

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the 29^th IGB Workshop “Targeting the (un)usual suspects in cancer”, which will take place virtually on December 2 and 3, 2021.

Since the launch of the "war on cancer" 50 years ago with the US National Cancer Act, several therapeutic strategies promoting cancer cell death have been developed and a wide range of cancer treatments is nowadays available. However, most of the conventional treatments do not selectively kill tumor cells and others suffer from tumor cells' heterogeneity, which makes it challenging to identify the appropriate targets.

In this scenario, the identification of new drugs - or drug combinations - targeting well-known signaling pathways as well as the repurposing of approved drugs showing previously unexplored anti-tumor activities can provide a renewed spectrum of therapeutic options in oncology.

Moreover, it has been demonstrated (for some tumors such as colorectal and pancreatic cancer) that even highly selective therapies do not completely eradicate the disease, as they miss to target the niche of cancer stem cells able to reconstitute and perpetuate the malignancy. Hence, targeting pathways that are unique to cancer stem cells’ maintenance and disrupting the crosstalk between tumor cells and the microenvironment represent fundamental approaches in the “war on cancer”.

The list of tumor hallmarks and of cancer-causing culprits has been updated in the last decade, including new cellular processes (i.e. metabolism) and molecular factors (i.e. non-coding RNAs) as relevant contributors to tumor onset, progression and drug sensitivity. Indeed, despite metabolic alterations being reported about a century ago, the strategy of targeting tumor metabolism has become a topic of renewed interest. Likewise, growing evidence indicates a previously unrecognized role for long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) as oncogenes and tumor suppressors by means of their ability to regulate each and every cancer hallmark. These findings, and especially the cancer-specific expression of most of them, established the rationale for assessing lncRNAs as therapeutic targets, as their silencing would not cause side effects on other tissues/cell types.

The Workshop is structured in four Sessions on 2 days and will cover well-established and innovative approaches to target:

- oncogenic signaling pathways

- cancer stem cells

- metabolic reprogramming

- long non-coding RNAs

Live-streaming sessions will be held during the Workshop and will include both invited and selected speakers from submissions. Live sessions will also contain a Q&A section to answer questions from the online audience.

Posters will be available during the event. As with papers presented at conferences, participants will be able to ask questions and make comments about the posters in individual Zoom breakout rooms where each poster presenter could share the poster with the attendees.