A University of Oklahoma researcher has received a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to investigate how pancreatic cancer uses cholesterol to survive chemotherapy. By uncovering how tumors use this essential nutrient to grow and evade treatment, the research could identify new ways to treat one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

Drug resistance remains one of the greatest obstacles to successful treatment of gastric cancer, limiting the long-term effectiveness of the widely used chemotherapy drug cisplatin. A new review highlights autophagy, the natural process by which cells recycle damaged proteins and organelles, as a promising therapeutic target that could improve treatment responses and help overcome resistance to chemotherapy.

Regularly checking in with patients with metastatic breast cancer by way of an app to enquire about their well-being – and responding promptly – can alleviate their debilitating fatigue and make their daily lives easier. This was demonstrated by researchers at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the German Cancer Society in a study published today in the journal JAMA Oncology*. The study is the result of the PRO B Innovation Fund project, which was implemented in collaboration with the health insurance providers BARMER, DAK-Gesundheit, and mkk – meine krankenkasse. Based on the positive results, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) is recommending to incorporate the new treatment concept into standard care.

A case report published in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians shows how genetic analysis and molecular biology studies helped confirm the diagnosis, guide preventive surgeries, and define personalized surveillance strategies across generation.

Hollings researchers have identified five critical care steps that can help patients with advanced head and neck cancer begin radiation within the recommended six weeks after surgery. Led by Hollings head and neck surgical oncologist Evan Graboyes, M.D., the study found that patients who completed four or five of these milestones had a 90% rate of starting radiation on time, compared with just 10% among those who completed one or no care steps. The findings provide cancer centers with practical targets for improving coordination across the many specialists involved in head and neck cancer care and helping patients receive lifesaving treatment without unnecessary delays.

Natalie Lui, MD, Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery (Thoracic Surgery) at the Stanford School of Medicine, has been awarded a multi-year research project grant (R01) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study and develop a molecular imaging agent for localizing (or identifying) lung cancer tumors during surgery. 

Locating small lung tumors located deep within the lungs remains challenging, as they need to be navigated through a complex network of tiny airways. Existing AI systems trained on incomplete human annotations may also fail to identify peripheral airways that were omitted from the training labels. Researchers from Pusan National University developed a novel AI framework, ASTRA-Net, which helps recover previously overlooked peripheral airways—potentially enabling more accurate bronchoscopy maps for better lung cancer diagnosis.