EurekAlert! Cancer Research - News Releases

News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 29-Dec-2025 18:11 ET (29-Dec-2025 23:11 GMT/UTC)

Blood test guides post-surgical immunotherapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who test positive for circulating tumor (ct)DNA after surgery to remove the cancer benefit from immunotherapy with atezolizumab compared to placebo whereas ctDNA-negative patients may potentially be spared unnecessary treatment. The finding is based on results from the global, randomized, phase 3 IMvigor011 trial co-led by investigators from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Technical University of Munich, and Queen Mary University of London, UK.

Journal: New England Journal of Medicine
Meeting: ESMO 25

Survivors of high-risk neuroblastoma face substantial late effects of modern therapies

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Within the last two decades, multiple stem cell transplants and immunotherapy were added to intensive chemotherapy as the standard of care for high-risk neuroblastoma, drastically improving survival of this childhood cancer. Most survivors, however, suffer from long-term complications of treatments, according to the first study to examine late effects in this population since the new therapies were incorporated. Results were published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

Journal: The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health

DNA shed by colon cancers may help personalize postsurgical treatment

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Results of the DYNAMIC-III trial, a multi-institutional phase II/III international study conducted at Johns Hopkins and about 20 sites in Australia and Canada, showed that by using ctDNA to guide treatment, patients who tested negative for ctDNA following surgery received less chemotherapy and had fewer hospitalizations and treatment side effects. The study was published Oct. 20 in Nature Medicine and presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Berlin, Germany. The work was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Journal: Nature Medicine
Funder: Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, Marcus Foundation, Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research, Lustgarten Foundation, Sol Goldman Charitable Trust, National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Health, the Epworth Medical Foundation, the Eastern Health Research Foundation

Folate receptor beta found in pediatric tumors may improve fluorescence-guided cancer surgery

Impact Journals LLC
Peer-Reviewed Publication

BUFFALO, NY – October 20, 2025 – A new research paper was published in Volume 16 of Oncotarget on October 16, 2025, titled “Widespread folate receptor expression in pediatric and adolescent solid tumors – opportunity for intraoperative visualization with the novel fluorescent agent pafolacianine.”

Journal: Oncotarget

Research team visualizes chemical signals of individual cells

University of Münster
Peer-Reviewed Publication

How do cells in tumour tissue communicate with each other, and what can we learn about cancer from this? A research team at the Institute of Hygiene at the University of Münster has developed a method combining fluorescence microscopy and imaging mass spectrometry. This reveals metabolic differences between individual cells for the first time, representing a breakthrough in diagnosis and therapy. The results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Journal: Nature Communications

New platform for the production of versatile active ingredients

Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Natural products derived from microorganisms are a promising source of new active ingredients, but are often produced only in very small quantities. A research team from the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) led by Tobias Gulder has now succeeded in establishing a chemo-enzymatic platform for the production of furanolides – a class of natural products with a broad spectrum of activity. This strategy not only allows furanolides to be produced cost-effectively, but also enables structural modifications to be made. The newly generated molecules are capable of effectively combating both bacterial pathogens and cancer cells. The team has now published its findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society

Combination of immunotherapy and targeted therapy improves survival for patients with advanced colorectal cancer

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by UCLA investigators found that combining zanzalintinib, a targeted therapy drug, and atezolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, helped patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, the second most common cause of cancer death in the U.S., live longer and control their disease better than with the standard treatment drug regorafenib.

Journal: The Lancet
Meeting: ESMO 25

Graying hair may reflect a natural defense against cancer risk, new study finds

The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Hair graying and melanoma—a form of skin cancer—may seem like unrelated phenomena. But according to a new study from The University of Tokyo, both outcomes may arise from how pigment-producing stem cells respond to DNA damage. These cells, located in hair follicles, face a critical decision under genotoxic stress: either to differentiate and exit the system—leading to graying—or to continue dividing, which may eventually lead to tumor formation.

Journal: Nature Cell Biology
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development

Research shows world-first breakthrough for bowel cancer immunotherapy

University of Galway
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the University of Galway have revealed the results of a world-first study into how bowel cancer shuts down the immune system, and how this can be reversed to improve treatment.

The findings have been published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC).

The research team showed how structural stromal cells switch off the immune system and how the body’s own killer cells can be switched back on, opening up the opportunity for a completely new approach to optimising immunotherapy for patients.

Journal: Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

Experts urge risk-based monitoring as Barrett’s esophagus care moves beyond one-size-fits-all

American Gastroenterological Association
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Bethesda, MD (Oct. 17, 2025) — The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) today released a new clinical practice guideline on the surveillance of Barrett’s esophagus, the only known precursor to esophageal cancer (adenocarcinoma), a highly lethal cancer whose incidence has risen substantially over recent decades. The guideline provides eight evidence-based recommendations and several key implementation statements to help clinicians monitor patients after a diagnosis of Barrett’s esophagus, a condition associated with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Journal: Gastroenterology

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