Los Angeles, CA – August 14, 2025 – The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation announces a significant advancement in addressing the fight against cancer-associated cachexia (CAC), a life-threatening syndrome responsible for over one-third of cancer-related deaths. Published in Cell, the study led by Dr. Aliesha O’Raw, Principal Investigator at the Institute, demonstrates that modulating the vagus nerve can effectively halt the progression of cachexia, enhance chemotherapy outcomes, and improve survival in preclinical models.

An international team of scientists published findings August 7, 2025, in Cancer Discovery helping to explain why a common form of pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma is often treated successfully with chemotherapy but prone to relapse in several years.

Cancer cells with many copies of the MYCN oncogene on circular extra-chromosomal DNA elements (ecDNA) grow quickly but are more easily destroyed by chemotherapy. Tumor cells with fewer copies of the oncogene located on ecDNA enter a zombie-like state known as senescence where they persist but no longer divide to make new cells. These zombie cells are unaffected by chemotherapy and can be reactivated a year or two later, triggering the cancer to relapse.

The researchers demonstrated that combining standard chemotherapy with a secondary therapy able to target senescent cancer cells led to dramatically improved outcomes in tests on mouse models of neuroblastoma.

A new study from Denmark shows for the first time that men with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer who undergo PSMA PET/CT before salvage radiotherapy have improved survival rates compared to those who do not. Using data collected nationwide over a period of eight years, researchers confirmed that PSMA PET/CT is a valuable tool for identifying patients who are likely to benefit from salvage radiotherapy. This research was published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Tuebingen, August 13, 2025. The DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden is starting the new application round for the DKMS John Hansen Research Grant: up to four exceptional research projects by young scientists from around the world will be awarded funding of up to €240,000 each over three years. The projects to be funded should focus on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cell therapy for hematological diseases. Applications for the 2026 DKMS John Hansen Research Grant can be submitted until November 20, 2025. 

A CNIC-led study published in Science Translational Medicine shows that the clinical imaging technique ¹⁸FDG-PET could facilitate atherosclerosis monitoring and the evaluation of new treatments.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T–cell immunotherapy reprograms a patient’s immune cells to target a cancer-specific cell surface protein. CAR T cells have been effective against blood cancers, but do not work as well in solid and brain tumors because cancer cells do not uniformly express the same cell surface proteins, allowing cancer cells to escape treatment and regrow the tumor.