Here are a few newsworthy items in the world of cancer research

• As part of the National Cancer Moonshot initiative, the Genomic Data Commons will standardize accessible data so that it can be used by cancer researchers.  The plan is to integrate genomic and clinical data so it may ultimately serve as a resource for clinicians and their patients.
• Research conducted by scientists in St. Jude’s Research Hospital suggest that pediatric leukemia patients treated with higher concentrations of methotrexate are more likely to experience impaired executive function later on in life. Their findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
• Through a meta-analysis, researchers at the University of California in the San Diego School of Medicine, reported that personalized medicine leads to better outcomes in patients with cancer. 346 studies for a three year period were analyzed. The results were published in JAMA Oncology.
• A research group at Lund University in Sweden has discovered two new types of blood cancer in the pediatric population. The discovery came about through the application of next generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. The discovery may signal the greater use of personalized medicine, applicable to different patients. The research findings were published in Nature Communications.