Oncology & Cancer

A gene called DNMT3A is important for guiding blood stem cells into forming all the cell types present in blood, including red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. When this gene accumulates mutations—which might occur with age or due to environmental exposures such as smoking—a person’s risk of developing blood cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML) increases.

Researchers from the University of Oklahoma Health Campus have published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine describing a novel care coordination and communication program and its potential for helping Indigenous people access the lifesaving cancer care that they need.

When someone mentions the word “toxicity” in relation to cancer treatment, they’re usually referring to the negative physical side effects and complications that can result from therapies like radiation and chemotherapy. But researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine are raising awareness of another kind of toxicity patients face: financial toxicity, which refers to the stress, expense and instability caused by direct and indirect costs associated with health care.

Tumors are stressful places for cancer-fighting immune cells. Low oxygen, high acid levels, and other stressors put strain on mitochondria, the cell’s energy factories, leading to T cell exhaustion and poor cancer outcomes.

Surgical patients in rural areas who are undergoing colectomy for cancer could benefit greatly from the expanded use of minimally invasive surgery, according to new research findings published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

An international team led by the Clínic-IDIBAPS-UB along with the Institute of Cancer Research, London, has developed a new method based on DNA methylation to decipher the origin and evolution of cancer, which makes it possible to predict its future clinical course. The study, published today in the journal Nature, analyzes the evolution of the tumors of 2,000 patients with leukemias and lymphomas.

An international research team has shown that lung cancer cells can form functional synapses with neurons, effectively hijacking the body’s neural circuits to grow faster. The finding reveals a startling new dimension of cancer biology and opens promising new avenues for therapies against this disease. The study titled “Functional synapses between neurons and small-cell lung cancer” is published in Nature.

A major UK study has provided the most comprehensive analysis to date of a cancer diagnosis pathway for patients presenting with non-specific symptoms (NSS), such as unexplained weight loss or fatigue. These symptoms can indicate a wide range of conditions, from benign diseases to late-stage cancers, making timely and accurate diagnosis a significant challenge in primary care.

A Ph.D. student at the University of Bristol has developed a convenient and cost-effective wearable patch to measure subtle temperature changes across the breast, which could in future be used to detect potential abnormalities and cancerous tumors.

Patients are increasingly turning to AI for medical information and even advice, but how should they approach using AI-powered services? A new study published Sept. 3 in the journal Future Science OA, provides insight into this question for the fast-moving field of blood cancer, evaluating the quality of responses by ChatGPT to a set of 10 medical questions.