EurekAlert! Cancer Research - News Releases

News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Jun-2026 01:15 ET (22-Jun-2026 05:15 GMT/UTC)

Novel cellular phenomenon reveals how immune cells extract nuclear DNA from dying cells

The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cells were long believed to safeguard nuclear contents, releasing them only during cell death. Extracellular DNA was thought to enter cells solely through endocytosis into endosomes, with self-DNA never reaching the cytosol directly. Challenging this view, researchers have discovered a previously unknown cellular phenomenon termed nucleocytosis, in which macrophages directly extract nuclear DNA from dying cells. This finding reshapes core cell biology concepts and may clarify immune responses, infections, cancer mechanisms, and future therapeutic development.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Japan Science and Technology Agency, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Hokkaido University, University of Tokyo, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan

American Chemical Society Journal cover highlights SQU research on functionalized gold nanoparticles

Sultan Qaboos University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Gold nanoparticles with surface functionalization are vital to improve their stability, bio-compatibility to engineer them to be suitable candidates in advanced bio-medical technologies, including drug delivery systems, biosensors, bioimaging, photothermal cancer therapy etc. They are also being exploited in catalysis and energy applications. Their performance in these applications depends strongly on how their surfaces interact with the surrounding medium, particularly the interfacial water, at the nanoscale. Therefore, understanding the thermodynamics and intermolecular structure of the interfacial water is crucial in the design process.

Journal: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

Overdiagnosis of papillary thyroid cancer

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: This study found that thyroid cancer overdiagnosis in the U.S. remains substantial, even after accounting for possible increases in true incidence. This finding suggests an opportunity to reduce unnecessary thyroid ultrasonography referrals, particularly for nonpalpable nodules, and to reduce unnecessary diagnoses and treatment-related harms without increasing mortality.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Solving cancer immunotherapy’s fuel shortage

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at UCLA have found a way to supercharge immune cells with a fuel source that tumors can’t steal, dramatically improving their ability to survive and attack solid tumors in preclinical studies.

Journal: Cell
Funder: E. Richard Stiehm Endowment, The Natasha and Brandon Beck Foundation

New poll: Almost half of US adults unaware of connection between processed meat consumption and colorectal cancer

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Reports and Proceedings

Just before National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month begins in March, a new Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine/Morning Consult poll found that nearly half of Americans aren’t aware that eating processed meat increases the risk of developing colorectal cancer.

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards $3.2 million to innovative early-career scientists

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
Grant and Award Announcement

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has announced eight recipients of the 2026 Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, established to support high-risk, high-reward ideas with the potential to significantly impact the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer.

New technology reveals hidden DNA scaffolding built before life ‘switches on’

Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Medical Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) and Imperial College London have overturned a long-standing assumption about how life begins at the molecular level. Using a new high-resolution technology, they show that the genome is far more organised during its earliest moments than previously believed. Understanding this 3D organisation is critical, as its failure can lead to developmental disorders and diseases such as cancer.

Journal: Nature Genetics
Funder: Medical Research Council, Academy of Medical Sciences

Trashing cancer’s ‘undruggable’ proteins

Northwestern University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

‘Undruggable' cancer-driving proteins resist various treatments because drugs cannot bind to them. New Velcro-like polymer grabs proteins without needing a traditional binding pocket. Polymers also grab the cell’s waste-disposal machinery, bringing it to the protein. Strategy worked in cellular cultures and animal models of cancer for two notoriously undruggable proteins.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Willens Center for Nano Oncology

Singapore study uncovers why some colorectal cancer tumors return and spread after chemotherapy

Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study led by researchers from the A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR GIS), together with the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), Singapore General Hospital (SGH), and KU Leuven, Belgium, has uncovered why some colorectal cancer cells become harder to treat and more likely to spread after chemotherapy. Published in Nature Cell Death & Disease, the findings reveal a biological “survival shift” that helps cancer cells withstand treatment and move more aggressively, and point to new ways to identify high-risk patients and potentially improve future treatment strategies.

Journal: Cell Death and Disease

Beating cancer by eating cancer

University of Waterloo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team led by the University of Waterloo is developing a novel tool to treat cancer by engineering hungry bacteria to literally eat tumours from the inside out. Bacteria spores enter the tumour, finding an environment where there are lots of nutrients and no oxygen, which this organism prefers, and so it starts eating those nutrients and growing in size.

Journal: ACS Synthetic Biology