The journal welcomes manuscripts in the following broad areas of research:
- Cell and molecular biology including all aspects of tumor biology from a molecular and cellular point of view. Topics of interest include animal models, hypoxia, angiogenesis, metastasis, cellular signaling, cancer stem cells, DNA damage and repair, cell cycle and apoptosis.
- Biomarker studies we will publish studies of diagnostic and prognostic markers which may ultimately be applicable in a clinical setting. Submissions need to be REMARK compliant as established in NCI-EORTC's "Reporting Recommendations for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies" (J Clin Oncol 23:9067, 2005) and "Reporting Recommendations for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies (REMARK): An Abridged Explanation and Elaboration" (J Natl Cancer Inst . 2018 Aug 1;110(8):803-811.). They should report biomarkers that have a clear biologic relevance to a particular tumor type and be validated in at least one independent validation cohort and with biological validation in vitro or in vivo. Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation will not be considered at BMC Cancer.
- Cancer epidemiology related cancer research including all aspects of cancer epidemiology including risk factors for disease initiation and development, social determinants, environmental, behavioural, and occupational correlates.
- Experimental therapeutics and drug development including all aspects of preclinical investigations on therapeutic agents. It welcomes submissions concerning anti-cancer drug discovery and development, and targeted therapies.
- Genetics, genomics and epigenetics including all aspects of genome-scale analysis, functional genomics, genetic association studies, pharmacogenomics and epigenetics in relation to cancer biology, diagnosis and therapy.
- Tumour immunology including on all aspects of infectious agents associated with cancer and tumor immunology. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, tumor immunity, immunotherapy, cancer vaccines, viral carcinogenesis and virus-host interactions.
- Therapy studies with focus on clinical research that impacts on the treatment of cancer using systemic chemotherapy, immunotherappy, targeted therapy, and radiation. We further welcome submissions on research looking at therapy resistance mechanisms.
- Surgical oncology with focus on clinical research that impacts on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer using surgery, diagnostic imaging, interventional therapeutics, and surgical pathology.
- Systems biology, post-genomic analysis and emerging technologies including all all aspects of the function of biological systems at the molecular and cellular level, in particular those addressing network modeling, quantitative analyses and the integration of different levels of information. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, deep sequencing-based technologies, computational biology and machine learning in relation to cancer biology.
Last updated: November 2021
