Oncology & Cancer

Researchers at Mount Sinai have made a breakthrough in treating a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This research, led by Josep M. Llovet, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine (Liver Diseases) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, tested a combination of treatments that could help patients live longer without their cancer getting worse.

A recent study uncovers how drug-resistant cancer cells induce changes in the tumor microenvironment. This phenomenon promotes cancer recurrence and explains why initially effective targeted therapies can lose their efficacy over time. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Cancer metastasis—the spread of cancer to other organs—is the leading cause of death among cancer patients. Researchers have now uncovered a “genetic signature” of 177 genes shared across multiple cancer types that drives this deadly process.

“I just wish someone had told me this was a possibility.” Kara Maxwell distinctly remembers the moment she heard those words eight years ago from the mother of a child with Fanconi anemia (FA). Maxwell met her at a conference focused on the rare, recessive genetic bone marrow disorder that causes myriad medical challenges, including childhood cancer. While survival is improving, the average lifespan for FA is currently only 20 to 30 years.

Russell W. Jenkins, MD, Ph.D., a physician investigator in the Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research at the Mass General Cancer Center and an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, is senior author of a new study in Cancer Immunology Research, “TBK1 is Identified as a Therapeutic Strategy to Enhance CAR T-Cell Efficacy Using Patient-Derived Organotypic Tumor Spheroids”.

In boys who, before starting puberty, undergo radical treatments that can affect their fertility, testicular tissue can be preventively removed and frozen. This is done to preserve testicular stem cells, the precursors of sperm cells. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy can destroy these cells, leading to infertility later in life.

A study led by Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania researchers demonstrates that a first-of-its-kind platform using artificial intelligence (AI) could help clinicians and patients assess whether and how much an individual patient may benefit from a particular therapy being tested in a clinical trial.

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, the UCL Cancer Institute and UCLH have shown that a test called ORACLE can predict lung cancer survival at the point of diagnosis better than currently used clinical risk factors. This could help doctors make more informed treatment decisions for people with stage 1 lung cancer, potentially reducing the risk of the cancer returning or spreading.

A study published in Health Data Science reveals significant survival disparities among cancer patients depending on their mobility patterns for medical care.

Cancer remains a significant public health challenge, with the GLOBOCAN 2020 report estimating a staggering 19.3 million new cancer cases and 10 million cancer-related deaths globally. This burden is anticipated to escalate due to population growth, aging, and adoption of cancer-causing lifestyles and behaviors.