Read on for some of the latest developments in cancer research:

• Working with mice and rats, researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a way to deliver nano-sized, platinum-based chemotherapy drugs to treat a form of bladder cancer. Their findings are discussed in Clinical Cancer Research.
• In the largest genomic study of chordoma – a rare bone cancer of the skull and spine – scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, and University College London Cancer Institute demonstrated that a group of chordoma patients could be treated with PI3K inhibitors, based on their mutations. Read more about their research in the issue of Nature Communications.
• The American Cancer Society has approved funding for 78 research and training grants totaling close to $40 million. For more information on the ACS research program link to: https://www.cancer.org/research
• The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab for use in patients with advanced gastric (stomach) cancer. To receive the drug, patients’ tumors also must express the protein PD-L1.