Editorial: Cancer and nutrients: new chemicals, signals, and biomarker-based therapy

International audience; Editorial on the Research Topic Cancer and nutrients: new chemicals, signals, and biomarker-based therapy Nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fats, and amino acids show promise as signaling modulators in controlling psychological and pathological processes.

Altered nutrient metabolism and related signaling pathways contribute to tumorigenesis and thus serve as targets for cancer therapy.

Importantly, due to their favorable safety profile, nutrients hold promise as adjunctive approaches in cancer prevention.

An excellent example is the role of retinoids, a group of vitamin A derivatives, in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (1).

Low serum retinol levels have been described as a risk factor for the development of HCC in humans (2), and dominant-negative mutations (3) or phosphorylation-induced inactivation (4) in retinoid receptors promote HCC development in transgenic mice.

Reactivation of retinoid signaling with an acyclic retinoid, peretinoin, showed promising therapeutic results in clinical trials to prevent the recurrence of HCC after curative treatment (5, 6).

However, the clinical application of nutrients is still challenging due to the ambiguous evidence of effectiveness and lack of mechanism-based biomarkers to identify a high-risk subgroup.

The aim of this Research Topic on "Cancer and Nutrients: New Chemicals, Signals, and Biomarker-Based Therapy" is to establish the current views of the chemical and biological basis of natural and synthetic nutrients in cancer biology, such as tumor immunology and microenvironment, and to collect evidence of nutrients in cancer epidemiology and clinical practice.