Here are a few highlights of cancer research news that have caught our attention the past two weeks:

• The Society of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology (SAYAO) held their first annual meeting in October 2013, in Irvine, California. SAYAO “is an international professional organization dedicated to improving adolescent and young adult cancer care through the promotion of interdisciplinary research, education, communication, and collaboration among health professionals.”
• The journal Science published research on a new cancer cell DNA damage repair mechanism.
• MIT biologists have discovered that tumor cells with a p53 mutation can be made more vulnerable to chemotherapy by blocking the gene MK2.
• Researchers from the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have discovered new molecular targets for melanoma cancer patients.