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

• A new study led by researchers at the University of Michigan found that 10% of patients who had surgery that was expected to cure their cancer were still filling opioid prescriptions 1 year after their operation, with daily opioid doses similar to those in long-term opioid users. For more, see the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
• Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are leveraging artifical intelligence to develop a new method for detecting ovarian cancer at its earliest stage. They have identified a network of circulating microRNAs — small, non-coding pieces of genetic material — that are associated with risk of ovarian cancer and can be detected from a blood sample.  The findings have been published in eLIFE.
• The American Society Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in collaboration with Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) have recently published an update on the role of bone-modifying agents (BMAs) in metastatic breast cancer. You can read more about this update in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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.