Researchers leading a trial of active surveillance for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) have described early results as ‘reassuring’ in a presentation to the 15^th European Breast Cancer Conference.

Fragments of tumour DNA circulating in the bloodstream of patients with breast cancer can predict whether they are likely to relapse, especially when samples are taken after the patients have received treatments prior to surgery. The study, presented at the 15^th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC15) in Barcelona, included the largest number of events reported so far for circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in individual patients.

Scientists at City of Hope^® and TGen (part of City of Hope) are the first to explain a major mechanism for why gaining excess weight increases your risk of cancer.  The study, published today in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, reveals a major driving force behind how obesity increases cancer risk across multiple organs. The findings emphasize the importance of maintaining a healthy weight from early childhood and propose a potentially more accurate way than body mass index (BMI) to predict the increase in cancer risk associated with obesity.  

In aggressive lymphomas, inflammatory messengers reprogram the “conductors” of the immune system, causing lymph nodes structure to collapse. A team led by Simon Haas describes in “Nature Cancer” this process for the first time using single-cell and spatial analyses.

A new platform makes it easier to study metastasis and sheds light on how cancer clusters survive in the bloodstream when spreading from a primary tumor to other parts of the body.

Women who consistently met physical activity guidelines throughout middle age had half the risk of dying from any cause compared to women who remained inactive, according to a new paper publishing March 26^th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Binh Nguyen of the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues.

The mission of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute to eradicate blood cancers relies on close collaboration with world-class leaders in the field. As part of its internationalisation strategy, the Institute has welcomed a delegation of the Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital (IHCAMS), China’s leading institution in haematology. IJC and IHCAMS have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, reaffirming their shared commitment to work together for blood cancer patients.

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University and University College Dublin will use newly awarded funding of €670,000 from Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Fund to develop a breakthrough blood-based screening test for bowel cancer (colorectal cancer, CRC).

The team, working with clinicians at St. Vincent’s University Hospital, seeks to transform cancer outcomes by moving screening away from invasive or unpleasant methods to their simple, high-accuracy blood test, named “CASPDx CRC”.

The CASPDx team is now initiating the formal validation of their product. Patients are being recruited in all Bowel Screen Centres in the HSE Dublin & South East region as part of clinical validation studies, with assistance of the UCD Clinical Research Centre. While the CASPDx CRC test is still at clinical validation and immunoassay development phases, the team aim to launch the test and spin-out as a company by the end of 2027.

A research team led by Purdue University’s W. Andy Tao has discovered of a new type of protein modification related to cellular mutation that impairs a crucial enzyme’s ability to help drive energy processes. Their discovery, reported in Nature Chemistry, opens a new route to therapeutic cancer intervention.