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 in the peer-reviewed journal, Future Science OA, provides insight into this question for the fast-moving field of blood cancer.

 

A team of scientists at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) has created a protein-based therapeutic tool  that could change the way we treat diseases caused by harmful or unnecessary cells. The new tool, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, involves a synthetic protein called Crunch, short for Connector for Removal of Unwanted Cell Habitat. Crunch uses the body’s natural waste removal system to clear out specific target cells, offering hope for improved treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other diseases where harmful cells cause damage.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and four other institutions have devised a novel method to test for prostate cancer using biomarkers present in urine, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. This approach could significantly reduce the need for invasive, often painful biopsies, they say.

Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center are developing a promising new drug to combat aggressive head and neck cancers. The drug works by targeting cancer cells’ mitochondria – their energy source – by boosting levels of a fat molecule called C18-ceramide. C18-ceramide triggers the destruction of mitochondria and starves cancer cells. It also blocks fumarate, a key energy molecule, creating a dual attack on cancer metabolism while largely sparing healthy cells.

In mouse models and patient-derived tumors, the drug significantly slowed tumor growth and caused cancer cells to collapse energetically. Because reduced ceramide is a hallmark of many cancers, this approach could one day lead to a new class of targeted therapies that are safer and more effective than chemotherapy or radiation. Although still in preclinical stages, the researchers are optimistic about advancing the drug to clinical trials as a potential lifeline for patients with treatment-resistant cancers.

Today, the American Cancer Society (ACS) released Prostate Cancer Statistics, 2025, a report on current prostate cancer occurrence and outcomes in the United States. According to the study, prostate cancer incidence rates have reversed from a decline of 6.4% per year during 2007 through 2014 to an increase of 3.0% annually during 2014 through 2021, with the steepest increase (4.6%-4.8% per year) for advanced-stage diagnoses. Simultaneously, mortality declines slowed from 3%-4% per year during the 1990s and 2000s to 0.6% per year over the past decade. These major findings are to be published today in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.