Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jul 24, 2025; 16(7): 108071
Published online Jul 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i7.108071
HOXC6-TIMELESS axis: Unveiling novel therapeutic strategies in bladder cancer
Meng-Meng Shi, Ming-Yue Guan, Shi Li, Jie-Yu Guo, Xing-Zhen Chen, Jing-Feng Tang, Ce-Fan Zhou
Meng-Meng Shi, Ming-Yue Guan, Shi Li, Jie-Yu Guo, Jing-Feng Tang, Ce-Fan Zhou, School of Life and Health Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Research, National “111” Center for Cellular Regulation and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Key Laboratory of Fermentation Engineering (Ministry of Education), Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, Hubei Province, China
Xing-Zhen Chen, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton T6G 2H7, Canada
Author contributions: Shi MM prepared the original draft; Zhou CF contributed to the conceptualization, writing, review and editing of the manuscript; Shi MM, Li S, Zhou CF and Tang JF collaboratively drafted the manuscript; Guo JY, Chen XZ provided some valuable opinion, and all authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by National Key R&D Program of China, No. 2023YFC2507904; Hubei Strategic Science and Technology Talent Plan, No. 2024DJA037; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 32270768, No. 82273970 and No. 82370715; and Innovation Group Project of Hubei Province No. 2023AFA026.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ce-Fan Zhou, PhD, Professor, School of Life and Health Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Research, National “111” Center for Cellular Regulation and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Key Laboratory of Fermentation Engineering (Ministry of Education), Hubei University of Technology, No. 28 Nanli Road, Wuhan 430068, Hubei Province, China. cefan@hbut.edu.cn
Received: April 8, 2025
Revised: April 27, 2025
Accepted: June 11, 2025
Published online: July 24, 2025
Processing time: 109 Days and 6.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The significant correlation between HOXC6 overexpression and bladder cancer (BLCA) progression has led to the establishment of a novel HOXC6-TIMELESS regulatory axis. In this letter, we aim to highlight the HOXC6-TIMELESS axis as a promising molecular target for the diagnosis and treatment of BLCA. Additionally, exploring therapeutic strategies such as RNA-based interventions, or circadian rhythm modulation may offer promising avenues to improve BLCA management and patient prognosis.