Focus on gastrointestinal and liver cancers

Abstract Digestive cancers, such as colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and liver cancer, remain major threats to human health in coming decades and their epidemiology is under dynamic changes. Recent advances in genotyping and sequencing technologies together with other molecular and cellular biology techniques have led to a clearer delineation of the pathogenic mechanisms underlying genetic and environmental factors that contribute to digestive cancers. Such expansion of knowledge continues to fuel the development of novel biomarkers and therapeutics. In this special issue of Seminars in Cancer Biology, hot topics in basic and translational research of digestive cancers will be reviewed.