University of Warwick research warns that popular deep learning systems trained for cancer pathology may be relying on hidden shortcuts rather than genuine biological signals.

Researchers have developed a light-activated nanoassembly that helps anticancer drugs overcome multiple intracellular barriers and reach the cell nucleus more efficiently. This strategy significantly enhances the therapeutic effect of combined phototherapy and chemotherapy in breast cancer models.

Discovery reveals how drug-resistant tumours can shift into a state that responds better to chemotherapy.

Successful cancer surgery depends on a surgeon’s ability to remove tumors, while minimizing harm to healthy tissues. Surgeons currently use glowing dyes which mark cancer cells to help differentiate from healthy cells, but these dyes aren’t perfect and will light up some healthy tissues too. For the first time, researchers including those from the University of Tokyo developed what they call a bioorthogonal fluorescence probe and a matching reporter enzyme that can activate the probe selectively at targeted tumor sites. This enables high-contrast tumor visualization with very low background. This study was performed in mice. 

Although plastic particles in the air are increasingly coming into focus, knowledge about their distribution and effects is still limited. Chemical analyses from Leipzig now provide details from Germany for the first time: around 4% of the particulate matter consists of plastic. Around two-thirds of this comes from tyre abrasion. Extrapolated, this means that people in a city like Leipzig inhale approximately 2.1 micrograms of plastic per day through the air, which increases the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 9% and from lung cancer by 13%. These findings underscore the need to take global action against plastic pollution and to examine air quality and health at the regional level, write researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) and Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, published by the Nature Publishing Group. The study was conducted as part of the Leibniz Association-funded project "AirPlast".

 Patients with a common form of kidney cancer called clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) who have a high risk of recurrence after surgery showed significantly improved disease-free survival when treated with an oral combination regimen that includes belzutifan, a HIF-2α inhibitor, given with standard immune therapy pembrolizumab. These findings, from the phase 3 LITESPARK-022 study, are presented today by Dr. Toni Choueiri of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU) in San Francisco, California, from Feb. 26-28.