Inspired by the work of the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Chan Medical School and the development of the COVID vaccine, UMass Chan scientistis Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, and Chaitanya Naimesh Parikh, PhD’26, have developed an immunotherapy using a cocktail of messenger RNAs (mRNA) that could potentially be transformative for pancreatic cancer treatment.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced funding for new patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and related projects to inform clinical practice. The projects span emergency, hospital and outpatient care and address a range of health concerns including cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental and behavioral health, women’s health, pediatric care, rare diseases and chronic disease management.

C-terminal truncated HBx (Ct-HBx) upregulates plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) expression by increasing chromatin accessibility. The rs2227631-GG and the rs11178-TT of PAI-1 that facilitate PAI-1 expression and their interactions with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-risk hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutations promote HBV-HCC. Serum concentration of PAI-1 increased progressively during HBV-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. rs2227631-GG and rs11178-TT genotypes, along with higher PAI-1 expression, were risk factors for poor postoperative prognosis in HBV-HCC.PAI-1 is a novel prognostic and predictive factor for HBV-HCC.

Researchers from the University of Turku in Finland and Gustave Roussy Institute in France have discovered a molecular mechanism that regulates whether the cells of an aggressive colorectal cancer are conventional or inverted when they spread in the body. The discovery can help identify patients who have an elevated risk that the cancer metastasises to the abdominal cavity. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

A study led by researchers at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute shows that inherited genetic differences can distinguish biologically different forms of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms, opening the door to more personalised diagnosis, risk assessment and clinical management.