BMC Palliative Care is calling for submissions to our Collection on spiritual support in life threatening illnesses and end of life care. More information has been provided in the Editorial written by the Guest Editors Dr Michael Connolly (University College Dublin, Ireland) and Dr Barry Quinn (Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom).
BMC Cancer is calling for submissions to our Collection on novel in vitro and in vivo cancer models, guest edited by Prof. Ryan C. Fields (Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA) and Dr. Anna Golebiewska (Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg).
Over the last few decades it has become clear that the cross-talk between neoplastic cells and the tumor microenvironment, comprising resident and infiltrating host cells, extracellular matrix proteins and secreted factors, plays a key role in tumor progression and therapeutic resistance. The dynamic interaction between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment can be mediated by the bi-directional release and uptake of extracellular vesicles. Defined as lipid bilayer enclosed vesicles found in several biological fluids, extracellular vesicles are currently investigated for their ability to carry and deliver, at both short and long distances, several bioactive molecules, including nucleic acids, lipids and membrane-bound proteins, which could potentially influence many aspects of cancer progression.