The new approach to personalized cancer treatment is made possible by the discovery of specific biomarkers. Biomarkers can be used for cancer diagnosis, risk, and prognosis assessments, and for the surveillance of treatment effectiveness. More importantly, some biomarkers can be exploited as therapeutic targets.

An epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a complex process in which epithelial cells gain a range of mesenchymal characteristics, such as motility and invasive properties. However, the mesenchymal characteristics are reversible as cells can resume their epithelial phenotype through the reverse process named mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), enabling relatively static cancer cells to relocate into a distant metastasis site. Multiple lines of evidence have suggested that EMT is an initiator and driver for invasion and progression in various malignancies. Therefore, understanding the detailed regulation networks of EMT/MET is important for disease diagnosis and therapy.

The goal of this Special Issue is to provide a comprehensive summary and systematic analysis of the current understanding, and future potential, of the mechanisms and impact of EMT in disease proliferation, migration, invasion, drug resistance, and immunoregulation. This Issue will focus on the underlying of EMT processes in disease. We encourage the submission of basic, translational, and clinical studies that focus on predictive, diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic of EMT-related biomarkers of human disease. We are also interested in exploring the potential for EMT-related ncRNAs to serve as molecular markers/signatures in the prediction of the patient’s survival, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy response. Original research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Discovery of EMT-related biomarkers in disease development
• Extrinsic and intrinsic signals promoting EMT and MET
• The cross-talk between EMT markers/signaling pathway and ncRNAs
• Elucidating mechanisms of EMT-related biomarkers in proliferation, metastasis, immune escape, or drug resistance in malignant diseases
• Multi-omics analyses of EMT-related ncRNAs
• The potential of EMT-related ncRNAs as new therapeutic targets
• Theoretical and computational models that help understand EMT
• Novel metabolic pathways promoting the metastatic potential of cancer cells