Scientists at Houston Methodist Research Institute have developed a biodegradable implant designed to deliver cancer-fighting immunotherapy drugs directly into tumors over an extended period, a strategy that could improve treatment effectiveness while reducing side effects.

The misfolding of the amyloid beta protein is the strongest blood-based predictor for Alzheimer’s disease in the asymptomatic stage, indicating the risk of the disease years before it is clinically diagnosed and much earlier than the widely used plasma biomarker P-tau 217. This is the conclusion reached by a study led by Professor Klaus Gerwert (PRODI, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany). The research team analyzed blood samples from 17 years of 779 subjects in the population-based ESTHER cohort of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) to compare the effectiveness of leading blood biomarkers throughout the entire course of Alzheimer’s disease. The study was published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine on July 16, 2026.

Scientists have found the first direct evidence of the powerful role our genetic makeup plays in influencing our risk of cancer, with inherited genes interacting with acquired genetic mutations to shape how tumours evolve. The findings could explain why some people are more susceptible to cancer than others in the same environment and suggest that future cancer prevention and screening strategies may need to account more carefully for inherited genetics and population diversity.

A recent study from the University of Chicago shows an engineered bacteria strain may be a powerful approach for improving treatment response in pancreatic cancer.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, which reprograms an individual’s immune cells to seek out and destroy certain cancer cells, has revolutionized treatment for blood cancers such as lymphoma. But in some patients, the treatment can cause serious side effects. New research led by investigators at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has shown that patients’ inherited genetic makeup can influence whether they benefit from CAR-T cell therapy or experience toxicity from the treatment. The results are published in Science Immunology.