Prediction and Diagnosis: Application of Biomarkers for Bone Metastasis

Dear Colleagues,

Bone is one of the most prevalent metastatic sites of many solid tumors. Cancer spread to the skeleton can result in multiple skeletal-related events (SREs), including systemic hypercalcemia, bone pain, pathological fracture, or paraplegia caused by spinal cord compression. Mechanistically, cancer cells interact with other cells in the bone microenvironment to activate a “vicious cycle”, leading to disruption of bone integrity and facilitating bone metastasis. Given the increased osteoclast activity and bone destruction, bone metastasis may impose a major clinical challenge affecting patient quality of life and contribute to considerable medical cost. Recent studies on the tumor biology and clinical significance of bone metastasis have identified novel predictive and diagnostic biomarkers as well as therapeutic targets. Emerging therapies targeting these biomarkers or signaling pathways may shed light on treating bone metastasis or preventing the formation of overt metastasis in the future. For instance, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase type 5b (TRACP-5b) is mainly secreted by activated osteoclast and identified as the most accurate marker for bone metastasis in postmenopausal patients with luminal-type invasive ductal carcinoma. Changes in its activity are found to be significantly correlated with the treatment efficacy of bisphosphonates, implicating its potential in evaluating the antitumor effect in breast cancer bone metastasis. More recently, the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has facilitated the application of novel biomarkers in bone metastasis. A variety of deep learning models have been developed and applied in automatically analyzing or segmenting bone metastasis with high accuracy, which merits further exploration in the near future.

This Special Issue aims to determine the state of art of biomarkers for precise prediction and early diagnosis for bone metastasis caused by different solid tumors and find the respective countermeasures for different situations. In addition to existing conventional approaches, other effective strategies, such as AI-aided diagnosis, are urgently needed in bone metastasis.

We welcome the submission of original research and review articles including but not limited to basic research, clinical research, development and application of translational medicine, concise or systemic reviews, meta-analyses, commentaries, and viewpoints, on the following themes:

• New understanding of bone metastasis;
• Specific predictive or diagnostic biomarkers for the occurrence and development of bone metastasis;
• Signaling pathway targeting bone metastatic niche;
• Novel molecular mechanisms involved in bone remodeling;
• The application of artificial-intelligence-assisted precise prediction and diagnosis of bone metastasis.

Dr. Chao Tu
Dr. Haomiao Li
Dr. Hongwei Wu
Guest Editors

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• bone metastasis
• solid tumors
• biomarkers
• exosome
• ncRNAs
• prediction
• diagnosis
• artificial intelligence