(Guest post by Fred J. Currell and Stephen Curley)

Human malignant disease is a major public health problem worldwide. Despite the innumerable advances made in understanding cancer, most patients afflicted with this disease still suffer from the side effects associated with major surgical procedures, cytotoxic chemotherapy, and ionizing radiation therapy. Additionally, a significant proportion of patients with many types of cancer still succumb to their disease. Clearly, with the burgeoning size of the human population worldwide and the growth in the percentage of people over the age of 65, the actual number of cancer cases diagnosed annually is going to continue to increase.

Cancer Nanotechnology is an open access journal that is focused on creating a platform for scientists from seemingly disparate disciplines to address problems related to cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and reduction of side effects. We believe that in addition to cancer care clinicians and molecular biologists, we should attract the best minds from physics, chemistry, bioengineering, mathematics, and evolutionary biology to improve our understanding of this dread condition. With this journal, we are launching a vehicle for scientists from all of these disciplines to interact and share data in a rapid access, open format. We encourage the submission of novel work in the realm of cancer-related nanotechnology for peer-reviewed publication, but we will also be producing an array of invited Special Topics issues to describe up-to-date progress in specific types of cancer. Planned Special Topics issues include:

• Brain Cancer: Guest Editor Costas Hadjipanayis (Emory University)
• Breast Cancer: Guest Editors Jonathan Coulter (Queen’s University Belfast) and Sunil Krishnan (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
• Nanomaterials to enhance the  effect of ionizing radiation: Guest Editors Chun Li (MD Anderson Cancer Center) and Frederick J. Currell (Queen’s University, Belfast)
• Ovarian Cancer: Guest Editor Priyabrata Mukherjee (University of Oklahoma)
• Pancreatic Cancer: Guest Editor Steven A. Curley (Baylor College of Medicine)
• Prostate Cancer: Guest Editors Suneil Jain (Queen’s University Belfast) and Helen McCarthy (Queen’s University Belfast)

In many countries, cancer has replaced, or will soon replace, heart and vascular disease as the most common killer of humans. We are convinced that through nanotechnology-based investigations involving basic underpinning principles from physics and chemistry we have an opportunity to enhance our understanding of malignant diseases. Importantly, this journal will be a forum for the interaction of editors and scientists from around the world, and we hope to promote collaborations and interactions on a global scale. Considering that the topic of our journal is nanotechnology, in other words things that are very small, we have very large worldwide aspirations!

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