- In a preclinical study, scientists from Yale University used therapy carrying antibodies redesigned from lupus to target tumors. The novel approach allows the antibodies to get “unnoticed into the tumor environment”, which makes this therapy very targeted. This results in a “reduction in toxic side effects experienced by patients when less precise therapies kill off healthy tissue.” The study was published in ACS Central Science.
- Researchers from Rockefeller University discovered that sensory nerves within breast tumors strongly influence cancer progression and metastasizing. This discovery opens new possibilities for stopping breast cancer growth. The study also determined that the TACR1 antagonist aprepitant, an FDA-approved drug for nausea prevention, may prevent cancer growth and metastasis by targeting neuron chemistry/breast cancer interplay. The study was published in Nature.
- Researchers from Harvard University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute designed a protein that allowed the prolongation of the potency of CAR-T Cell therapy, a crucially important type of cancer treatment. The study was published in Nature Biotechnology.
- The latest cohort study by a group of researchers from multiple medical centers established that people at risk of pancreatic cancer have better survival rates if they undergo annual imaging as part of preventive surveillance. The study’s findings may lead to early detection of pancreatic cancer in high-risk individuals and improved survival rates. The study was published in JAMA Oncology.
- In the latest research on the subject, researchers from the University of Colorado established that pieces of DNA “left behind by viruses that infected primate ancestors tens of millions of years ago” and present inside the human genome, if reawakened, may help cancer “survive and thrive.” The findings suggest that “silencing certain endogenous retroviruses” can help cancer treatments become more efficient. The study was published in Science Advances.
- A new study from the American Cancer Society that “used 2019 information from nationally representative data on cancer incidence and mortality, as well as risk factor prevalence” found that “four in 10 cancer diagnoses and almost half of all cancer deaths of adults over the age of 30 in the United States could be attributed to modifiable risk factors.” The article published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians reports in some detail epidemiology correlating the risk factors with different cancer types.
Category Archives: In the News
Non-Smokers At Higher Risk of Resistance to Lung Cancer Treatment, Low Risk of Secondary Cancers in Patients on CAR-T Cell Therapy And More
- Researchers from University College London, the Francis Crick Institute, AstraZeneca, etc., identified the genetic basis of an increased risk of resistance to treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in non-smokers. The study was published in Nature Communications.
- The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) study showed that different physical properties of colorectal cancer cells had different potential for cancer metastasis. The study was published in Nature Communications.
- Researchers from Stanford University found that, contrary to an earlier FDA warning, the risk of secondary cancers in patients on CAR-T cell therapy is low. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- A study found that statins (in particular, pitavastatin), a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol, may be instrumental in suppressing chronic inflammation, a finding that could help prevent inflammatory-related cancers, e.g., pancreatic cancer. The study was published in Nature Communications.
- “Father of tamoxifen”, Pharmacologist V. Craig Jordan, a professor of Breast and Medical Oncology and Molecular and Cellular Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who discovered selective estrogen receptor modulators and developed breakthrough breast cancer treatment died last week.
- Note: Kendra contributed this entry. The National Institutes of Health is developing a fairly simple (in today’s terms) model to predict whether a given cancer patient will likely respond to immunotherapy. This is a far cry from a large foundational model, but there’s still value in training simpler classifiers. The current state for predicting patient responses to immunotherapy is that one or both biomarkers approved by the FDA will be measured for a particular patient to help oncologists select the drugs most likely to work.
The model in beta right now is described in Nature Cancer (lead author Tian-Gen Chang). The model “makes predictions based on five clinical features that are routinely collected from patients: a patient’s age, cancer type, history of systemic therapy, blood albumin level, and blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, a marker of inflammation. The model also considers tumor mutational burden.” The model has shown decent predictive ability and is available here: https://loris.ccr.cancer.gov.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer Research Advancements, Bacteria That Promote Colorectal Cancer, and More
- Researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) created an artificial intelligence (AI) tool “that uses data from individual cells” in tumors to predict patients’ response to a specific drug. The report was published in Nature Cancer.
- Purdue University researchers are developing nanoparticles capable of enhancing immunotherapy effects in cancer treatment. The study was published in ACS Nano.
- Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania gained insights into how cancer-caused liver inflammation hinders the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. The study was published in Nature Immunology.
- The researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center found that a specific type of bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum, known as related to gum disease, may promote colorectal cancer. These findings pave the way for therapies targeting these bacteria in colorectal cancer patients. The findings were published in Nature Immunology.
- Researchers from the University of Colorado Cancer Center explored the potential of a two-drug combination, doxorubicin plus bocodepsin, as a promising treatment option for triple-negative breast cancer. The preclinical study paves the way for future human clinical trials. The study was published in Breast Cancer Research.
- A new multicenter study found that women with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer who have high levels of immune cells in the tumor may be at a lower risk of recurrence and have better survival rates. The study was published today in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).