In about 5–10% of colorectal cancer patients, hereditary factors play a role, with higher percentages among younger patients. Research from Radboud university medical center and university hospital Bonn (UKB) in collaboration with researchers from Munich and Barcelona, shows that DNA analysis of colorectal polyps provides important additional information on the development of these polyps and colorectal cancer. This DNA analysis leads to better diagnostics and treatment and offers patients and their family members greater clarity. The results have now been published in Gastroenterology. 

Rates of multiple myeloma, the second most common blood cancer in the United States, are increasing and are twice as high in men than in women. A new study published by Wiley online in CANCER provides insights that may help to explain this disparity.

Immunotherapy before and after surgery improves outcomes for patients with lung cancer

Researchers find that higher bacteria levels inside tumors promote treatment resistance in head and neck cancer

Promising targeted therapies for AML and colorectal cancer

New targets identified to prevent chronic neuropathic pain after nerve injury

Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in partnership with the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and in collaboration with leading institutions across the country, have helped generate the largest single-cell immune cell atlas of the bone marrow in patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that, while treatable, remains incurable. The findings, published in Nature Cancer, provide unprecedented insight on immune dysfunction in myeloma and could lead to improved tools for predicting which patients are at higher risk of relapse after treatment.

Cancer cells employ a variety of strategies to evade the immune system, and modern immunotherapies aim precisely at these escape mechanisms. However, such therapies are not always successful. A research team led by Herbert Waldmann at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund and Georg Winter at the AITHYRA Institute in Vienna has now developed a new class of compounds that specifically target and destroy the enzyme IDO1—a key molecular switch that tumours use to suppress immune responses. They were also able to show that iDegs inhibit tumour growth in mice with SKOV-3 tumors, thereby prolonging survival time. This approach could markedly enhance the efficacy of existing immunotherapies and open new avenues in the fight against cancer.

Breastfeeding may lower mothers’ later life risks of depression and anxiety for up to 10 years after pregnancy, suggest the findings of a small observational study, published in the open access journal BMJ Open.