Despite significant advancements in medicine, cancer remains a major health challenge and the leading cause of mortality worldwide, highlighting the urgent need for continued research to identify robust biomarkers for the early detection, prognosis, and treatment across multiple cancer types.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive tumor of the central nervous system, is highly malignant, resistant to existing drug therapies and associated with high mortality rates. Overexpression of B-cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) has been frequently observed in GBM patients, highlighting the urgent need for potent BCL6 inhibitors as a novel treatment strategy.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors of the head and neck. Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF), which develops into OSCC, has become a relatively common pathway in oral mucosal carcinogenesis, with a transformation rate ranging from 3% to 19%. Hence, it is critical to elucidate the key molecular events of OSF tumorigenesis for the prevention and early diagnosis of OSCC.

An international team of scientists published findings August 7, 2025, in Cancer Discovery helping to explain why a common form of pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma is often treated successfully with chemotherapy but prone to relapse in several years.

Cancer cells with many copies of the MYCN oncogene on circular extra-chromosomal DNA elements (ecDNA) grow quickly but are more easily destroyed by chemotherapy. Tumor cells with fewer copies of the oncogene located on ecDNA enter a zombie-like state known as senescence where they persist but no longer divide to make new cells. These zombie cells are unaffected by chemotherapy and can be reactivated a year or two later, triggering the cancer to relapse.

The researchers demonstrated that combining standard chemotherapy with a secondary therapy able to target senescent cancer cells led to dramatically improved outcomes in tests on mouse models of neuroblastoma.

A new study from Denmark shows for the first time that men with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer who undergo PSMA PET/CT before salvage radiotherapy have improved survival rates compared to those who do not. Using data collected nationwide over a period of eight years, researchers confirmed that PSMA PET/CT is a valuable tool for identifying patients who are likely to benefit from salvage radiotherapy. This research was published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Tuebingen, August 13, 2025. The DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden is starting the new application round for the DKMS John Hansen Research Grant: up to four exceptional research projects by young scientists from around the world will be awarded funding of up to €240,000 each over three years. The projects to be funded should focus on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cell therapy for hematological diseases. Applications for the 2026 DKMS John Hansen Research Grant can be submitted until November 20, 2025. 

A CNIC-led study published in Science Translational Medicine shows that the clinical imaging technique ¹⁸FDG-PET could facilitate atherosclerosis monitoring and the evaluation of new treatments.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T–cell immunotherapy reprograms a patient’s immune cells to target a cancer-specific cell surface protein. CAR T cells have been effective against blood cancers, but do not work as well in solid and brain tumors because cancer cells do not uniformly express the same cell surface proteins, allowing cancer cells to escape treatment and regrow the tumor.