The scientific revolution in determining the genetic basis of cancer is finally bearing fruit in hematologic neoplasms such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML), where over the past decade a number of effective new drugs have expanded our armamentarium and provided effective—and in some cases...
Breakthrough research presented at the 2026 Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Annual Meeting shows that additional lymph node evaluation is needed during surgery for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to accurately identify cancer spread (Abstract A-1588). Globally, surgical standards vary on the...
Exposure to Agent Orange in U.S. veterans was associated with an increased odds of developing acral melanoma compared with controls with and without cutaneous melanoma, according to findings published in JAMA Dermatology. The study authors suggested that there is a need for continued investigation ...
Colorectal metastases isolated to the liver no longer portend a universally fatal outcome. In 2024, the TransMet study1demonstrated that liver transplantation in select patients could be life-saving—thus changing the treatment paradigm—but so can surgical resection when appropriately applied....
A new European collaboration cluster, EARLYSCAN (Early Screening & Hereditary Cancer Awareness Network), has been launched to strengthen prevention and early detection strategies for heritable cancers. The cluster brings together three Horizon Europe–funded projects: SHIELD, DISARM, and...
Metastasis-directed therapy significantly improved progression-free survival, radiologic progression–free survival, and castration resistance–free survival in patients with oligometastatic prostate cancer, according to a new study published by Tang et al in The Lancet Oncology. The study is a...
Almost 40% of all new cancer cases could be attributed to at least one of 30 modifiable risk factors, according to a new global analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The analysis of preventable cancers was published in Nature...
“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” – Ovid The 2025 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition delivered multiple practice-changing datasets surrounding T-cell–redirecting therapies in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma....
As the organizer of World Cancer Day on February 4, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) is mobilizing organizations and individuals worldwide to ensure that the voices of people affected by cancer are heard and drive a new vision of cancer care. Now in its second year, the World...
When patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) progress, as is common with such an aggressive malignancy, brain metastasis is a known possibility. As such, guidelines have recommended prophylactic cranial irradiation for patients with SCLC who respond well to first-line therapy to decrease the...
The first prospective, randomized phase III trial of a noncovalent Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor exclusively in treatment-naive patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL)—BRUIN CLL-313—demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically...
An artificial intelligence (AI)-based risk prediction model, ONCO-ACS, showed possible favorable clinical utility as a practical tool for predicting cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and ischemic stroke events in patients with cancer and acute coronary syndrome, according to findings...
A response-adapted approach to treatment decision-making for patients with resectable cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma demonstrated that with the use of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab, many patients could avoid surgery and/or radiotherapy. Findings from the De-Squamate study were published in the...
In patients with advanced HER2-positive gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, treatment with the bispecific antibody zanidatamab-hrii and chemotherapy, with or without the PD-1 inhibitor tislelizumab-jsgr, reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 35% over trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in the...
Genetic ancestry plays a key role in determining the behavior of head and neck tumors and may help explain why African American patients survive for half as long as their counterparts of European ancestry, according to a new review study published by Ndahayo et al in Cancer and Metastasis Reviews....
A team of researchers and physicians found that utilizing ultrasound-guided diffuse optical tomography (DOT) technology may reduce unnecessary breast biopsy rates by nearly 25%. Using this new method first—rather than starting with a biopsy—may help to determine if additional diagnoses are needed...
A prognostic scoring system for predicting 1-year survival in patients with advanced cancer and spinal metastases was enhanced with machine learning for greater accuracy, according to the results of a Japanese multicenter study published in Spine. "This model provides a practical risk assessment...
The second annual report from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) documents a substantial rise in neoadjuvant treatments, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and hormone therapy, often allowing for less invasive surgery and helping clinicians assess how a...
Color vision deficiency is an inherited condition affecting 1 in 12 males (8%) and 1 in 200 females (0.5%), most often impairing the ability to distinguish the color red. A recent study published in Nature Health examined the possible impact of color vision deficiency on survival outcomes among...
A recent, innovative study provides radiation oncologists with practical guidance to identify and protect female sexual organs during pelvic cancer treatment. Published by Greenwald et al in Practical Radiation Oncology, the report’s authors address a long-standing gap in cancer care by bringing...
Long-term proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use may not be associated with an increased risk of gastric adenocarcinoma, according to findings from a Nordic health study published by Duru et al The BMJ. According to the report's authors, “This finding should offer relief for patients needing long-term...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Yeh et al found that childhood cancer survivors who received abdominopelvic radiation, who are at increased risk of developing colorectal cancer, can benefit from early screening to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer and associated...
The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) in collaboration with 10x Genomics, Stanford University School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, has launched an open foundational database for cancer immunotherapy research. The...
Studies have demonstrated a link between alcohol consumption and an elevated risk of colorectal cancer. New research now reveals that higher lifetime alcohol consumption is also associated with a higher risk, especially for rectal cancer, and that quitting drinking can lower a person’s risk. The...
A new study by American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers shows that overall cancer mortality in people younger than age 50 in the United States has decreased by 44%, from 25.5 per 100,000 people in 1990 to 14.2 in 2023. The progress is due to declines in mortality for four of the five leading...
Editor’s note: On November 22, 2025—the 62nd anniversary of her grandfather President John F. Kennedy’s assassination—Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg published an essay in The New Yorker detailing her diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia with chromosome 3 inversion, a rare and aggressive subtype...
In patients with advanced HER2-positive gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, treatment with the bispecific antibody zanidatamab-hrii and chemotherapy, with or without the PD-1 inhibitor tislelizumab-jsgr, reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 35% over trastuzumab plus chemotherapy in the...
A new ASCO guideline provides recommendations on managing cancer during pregnancy, addressing a range of topics from the selection and timing of diagnostic testing and therapeutic interventions to delivery planning and ethical and legal considerations.1 The guideline aims to inform evidence-based...
ASCO, in collaboration with Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario), has published an update to their previous guideline on the treatment of multiple myeloma.1 This new guideline—which has been selected as an ASCO Living Guideline—reflects dramatic changes that have helped improve the management of...
In 2018, the federal government expanded the coverage duration of short-term limited-duration (STLD) health plans from 3 months to less than 12 months, with the option to renew for a total duration of up to 36 months. Some states imposed more stringent regulations than those federally imposed or...
On January 20, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a draft guidance for industry regarding the use of minimal residual disease and complete response as primary endpoints in clinical trials evaluating drugs and biologics for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma that ...
A national clinical trial led by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has found that the CDK 4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib may slow tumor growth in patients with aggressive meningiomas that have specific genetic mutations. The primary analysis of Alliance A071401 was published by Priscilla...
For many patients with cancer, hair loss can be one of the most distressing side effects of their therapy. Increasingly, patients have been taking oral supplements of biotin, which are marketed to consumers for their potential to improve hair regrowth and brittle nails. However, there is little...
An investigational cancer vaccine, NOUS-209, has shown potential for intercepting precancerous and cancerous cells before the disease can develop in individuals with Lynch syndrome, thereby showing the potential to prevent cancer from developing in these high-risk individuals, according to findings ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) have collaborated with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to develop a set of 10 guiding principles for good uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in...
Commonly used large language models (LLMs) were able to provide appropriate, guideline-aligned treatment recommendations for patients with straightforward cases of early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma; however, greater disagreement with physician recommendations was seen in cases of late-stage...
Although it’s been widely reported for years that colorectal cancer incidence has been increasing among younger adults under age 50 by between 1% and 2% annually since the mid-1990s,1 two new studies by Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH, Associate Chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal Oncology and Founding...
A machine-learning model has calculated country-specific cancer mortality-to-incidence ratios and evaluated the factors that contribute the most to each country's survival gaps. Additionally, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool mapped out actions each country could take to improve cancer...
Data from a major clinical trial from the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology have uncovered a genetic factor that may inform how to optimize the dosing of abiraterone, a widely used hormonal treatment for advanced prostate cancer. Published by Norton et al in Clinical and Translational...
A virtual screening campaign using machine learning identified molecules with potential for development as novel CDK9 inhibitors for the treatment of cancer, according to early research findings published in Biomolecules. Integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the drug discovery phase...
A deep learning model demonstrated the ability to predict breast cancer recurrence risk and possible benefit from the addition of chemotherapy based on histopathologic images rather than genomic testing in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, according to findings...
A whole-genome sequencing–based classifier demonstrated greater performance for predicting homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) across cancer types than standard assays, which in turn determined which patients with cancer would benefit from treatment with PARP inhibitors, according to findings ...
It is estimated that hereditary factors play a role in about 5% to 10% of colorectal cancer cases, with a higher prevalence of hereditary factors seen in younger patients. Many colorectal polyps are considered potential precursors to cancer: at least 10 polyps in individuals younger than 60 years...
In a phase III trial (GORTEC 2018-01, NIVOPOST-OP) reported in The Lancet, Bourhis et al found that the addition of adjuvant nivolumab to cisplatin and radiotherapy improved disease-free survival in patients with high-risk, resected, locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck...
For patients with previously treated multiple myeloma, the greatest risk reduction yet achieved in a phase III clinical trial was reported with the BCMA-directed CD3 T-cell engager teclistamab-cqyv plus daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj. Treatment with this combination resulted in an 83% reduction ...
Mutations in KDM6A have been identified as a regulator of therapeutic responses in advanced bladder cancer, sensitizing tumors to anti–PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibition but resisting cisplatin chemotherapy, according to early research published in Nature Communications. Based on this and further...
Based on the phase III CLL17 trial, a fixed duration of targeted treatment demonstrated noninferiority to continuous treatment with respect to progression-free survival in previously untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The findings were presented at the Plenary Session of...
An artificial saliva in the form of a mouthwash, produced with a protein extracted from sugarcane and modified in a laboratory, may aid in treating hyposalivation among patients with head and neck cancer, a new study has found. Radiotherapy delivered very close to the mouth can destroy salivary...
Higher intake of food preservatives, widely used in industrially processed foods and beverages to extend shelf life, is associated with a modestly increased risk of cancer, according to the results of a French study published by Hasenböhler et al in The BMJ. While further research is needed to...
In the phase III BRUIN CLL-314 trial, response rates were found to be as good with the noncovalent Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor pirtobrutinib as with ibrutinib in both patients with treatment-naive and relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic...