New research uncovers gene impacts of PFAS exposure in firefighters
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 5-Dec-2025 18:11 ET (5-Dec-2025 23:11 GMT/UTC)
A new paper provides evidence of how PFAS, often called “forever chemicals,” correspond to epigenetic changes that can lead to cancers, neurological disorders and autoimmune conditions.
A new class of PRMT5 inhibitors, designed to exploit a genetic vulnerability in aggressive tumors, works even better when paired with MAPK pathway drugs—wiping out hard-to-treat lung, brain, and pancreatic cancers in preclinical models, according to Virginia Tech scientists.
A new study led by Stephen D. Nimer, M.D.,director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, shows how a key molecule regulates the generation of new blood cells, a process called hematopoiesis that goes awry in cancer. The findings have the potential to lead to new therapeutic strategies targeting the molecule, a regulator of gene activity called TAF1.
Preoperative delay when treating breast cancer confers poorer outcomes, but growth rates and the upstaging likelihoods per delay interval remain unknown. This study evaluated upstaging risk, nodal spread, and tumor growth rates in vivo while awaiting treatment.
A new article appearing in the current issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry explores the concept of “superfoods” and makes a case that fresh grapes have earned what should be a prominent position in the superfood family.[1] The author, leading resveratrol and cancer researcher John M. Pezzuto, Ph.D., D.Sc., Dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Western New England University, brings forth an array of evidence to support his perspective on this issue.
[1] Pezzuto, John M. (2025). Perspective: Are Grapes Worthy of the Moniker Superfood? J. Agric. Food Chem. Doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5c05738
The diagnosis of a suspected lung, head, and neck cancer called NUT carcinoma should include additional testing capable of detecting gene fusions that are definitive markers of the disease, according to a study by Dana-Farber Cancer Instituteinvestigators. The study showed that more than 75 percent of patients with NUT carcinoma may not be immediately diagnosed because standard-of-care DNA testing does not detect NUT carcinoma fusion genes.
Salk Institute Professor Diana Hargreaves was named a 2025 All-Star Translational Award Program grantee by the V Foundation for Cancer Research. The award comes as a recognition of Hargreaves’ exceptional success with her previous V Foundation grant in 2016. For the All-Star project, she will receive $1 million and work with collaborator Gregory Botta, an associate professor at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, to improve immunotherapy—a treatment that utilizes the body’s own immune cells to fight cancer—in patients with pancreatic cancer.