Foreword

This special issue comprises two reviews and one regular article, which collectively address the current status of cancer diagnosis and treatment. This special issue, which places a particular emphasis on diversity, convened researchers who are currently at the forefront of a wide variety of research fields, including cardio-oncology, nuclear medicine, and cancer bioinformatics. In this issue, we will delve into the discourse surrounding the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies and the establishment of drug discovery platforms. The elucidation of the mechanism of cardiotoxicity by anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) therapies facilitates the selection of patients for whom drugs are likely to be effective, thereby ensuring the provision of effective treatment, and is instrumental in the development of effective treatment regimens for patients exhibiting cardiotoxicity. In the initial review, entitled “Trastuzumab Cardiotoxicity: Mechanism and Management,” Drs. Minoru Wakasa, Miharu Masaki, and Kouji Kajinami provide a comprehensive overview of the mechanisms, diagnostic methods, and treatment and preventive strategies for cardiotoxicity associated with anti-HER2 therapies for breast cancer. A critical aspect of radiotheranostics involves the development of pharmaceutical agents that are capable of delivering radiopharmaceuticals to target tissues with precision and efficacy. Nevertheless, precise control over drug pharmacokinetics remains challenging, particularly with respect to increasing drug accumulation in target tissues while concomitantly reducing distribution to non-target areas. The second review, titled “Probes with Tailored Pharmacokinetics for Radiotheranostics,” is authored by Drs. Masayuki Munekane, Hiroaki Echigo, Takeshi Fuchigami, and Kazuma Ogawa. In this review, the authors provide an overview of the fundamental concepts and recent advancements in probe design for radiotheranostics. They focus particularly on pharmacokinetics and subcellular localization. The third regular article, “Potential Prognostic Markers for Glioblastoma Associated with the Glioma Immune Microenvironment,” by Drs. Kazuya Tokumura and Eiichi Hinoi, identifies two potential prognostic markers for glioblastoma that are associated with the glioma immune microenvironment through integrated bioinformatics analyses including bulk RNA-sequencing, single-cell RNA-sequencing, and spatial transcriptome datasets of clinical specimens. These findings contribute to the development of immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of glioblastoma and other malignant tumors associated with the tumor microenvironment.