Detecting melanoma before it becomes visible is a major challenge in dermatology. Now, with researchers from Université de Montréal, scientists at Université du Québec’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) have developed a promising solution tested on mice.

Called SMEAR-ULM, it’s a high-tech system that can detect skin cancers at their earliest stages by measuring tiny temperature variations at the surface of the skin. Led by INRS professor Jinyang Liang, the research team’s findings are published in Nature Sensors. 

The work was carried out in close collaboration with several research teams, including ones led by INRS professor Fiorenzo Vetrone and, at UdeM, pharmacology professor Davide Brambilla and medical professor Sylvain Meloche. 

The potential impact of the work is significant, the scientists say. 

Preclinical studies at the Salk Institute laid the foundation for a question now being tested in patients: Can a vitamin D-based therapy “reprogram” a pancreatic tumor’s protective microenvironment, making tumors more vulnerable to therapeutic treatments? A clinical trial led by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute now demonstrates that a synthetic vitamin D analog can be administered safely in combination with standard-of-care chemotherapy and effectively reprogram the supporting pancreatic tumor microenvironment. This work also provides early evidence that vitamin D analogs can enhance chemotherapy response and improve survival, especially in patients with high tumor vitamin D receptor expression.

New research from MUSC Hollings Cancer Center is aimed at understanding and preventing relapse in pediatric brain cancers, particularly medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in children. The work focuses on why some tumors return after treatment and how resistant cancer stem cells may drive that recurrence.

The research is led by pediatric researcher Jezabel Rodriguez-Blanco, Ph.D., whose lab studies the biological mechanisms behind relapse in hopes of identifying new therapeutic targets. The researchers are investigating how tumors evolve after treatment and why recurrent tumors often behave differently from the original disease, one reason current therapies frequently fail once the cancer returns.

The study underscores Hollings’ growing investment in pediatric cancer research and translational science, with the long-term goal of developing combination therapies that could stop resistant tumor cells before they spark recurrence. The work also reflects a broader push to move discoveries from the lab into treatments that improve outcomes for children facing aggressive brain cancers.