A large, long-term study led by an Albert Einstein College of Medicine researcher has found that the introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in community settings is highly effective in protecting young women from infections caused by the cervical-cancer-causing virus—including women who didn’t even receive the vaccine. The study was published today in JAMA Pediatrics.

A team of researchers led by Rice University, in collaboration with colleagues in Mozambique and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has developed a simple, affordable human papillomavirus (HPV) test that delivers results in less than an hour with no specialized laboratory required. The breakthrough could provide an option for women in low-resource settings to be screened and treated for cervical cancer in a single clinic visit, a step that global health experts say could save countless lives. The research was recently published in Nature Communications.

The most common type of liver cancer in children, hepatoblastoma, surprisingly appears to contain many immune cells from a type that has long been overlooked. This is according to a study by researchers at the Princess Máxima Center and UMC Utrecht. The discovery of these myeloid cells in liver tumors unveils new avenues for treatment. 

In tissue biopsies, cancer cells are frequently observed to have nuclei (the cell's genetic information storage) larger than normal. Until now, this was considered a sign that the cancer was worsening, but the exact cause and effect had not been elucidated. In this study, the KAIST research team found that cancer cell nuclear hypertrophy is not a cause of malignancy but a temporary response to replication stress, and that it can, in fact, suppress metastasis. This discovery is expected to lead to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for cancer and metastasis inhibition.

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) represents a paradigm of targeted therapy in hematologic malignancies. Once regarded as the most fatal form of leukemia due to its rapid onset and severe hemorrhagic risk, APL was fundamentally transformed in the 20th century when Dr. Tingdong Zhang from Harbin Medical University, China discovered that arsenic trioxide (ATO) could effectively treat patients, achieving remission rates of up to 90% and converting it into the most curable acute leukemia. Extensive mechanistic studies have demonstrated that ATO exerts therapeutic effects by inducing apoptosis and promoting differentiation of APL cells. More recently, a study published in Science Bulletin using single-cell sequencing further revealed that ATO not only directly eliminates leukemic cells but also reshapes the tumor microenvironment through modulation of lymphocyte activity, underscoring its multifaceted role in APL treatment.

Cancer cells are pretty bold and clever - they highjack cellular survival and healing processes in order to fuel their grow, spread throughout the body, and ensure their own survival. The unfolded protein response (UPR), that protects cells against stress, is such a pro-survival mechanism. One of its key regulators, the inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1), has emerged as a promising target for developing therapies against cancer and a variety of other severe diseases. Now, a research team at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, led by Peng Wu, has developed a novel substance that inhibits IRE1 through a mechanism distinct from that of already existing inhibitors. This could open new therapeutic avenues for treating cancer and other human diseases.