Urine test could halve post-op scans for kidney cancer
Reports and Proceedings
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 7-Jul-2025 19:11 ET (7-Jul-2025 23:11 GMT/UTC)
A simple urine test could accurately show the recurrence of kidney cancer at an early stage, potentially sparing patients invasive scans and enabling faster access to treatment, new research has shown.
An international collaborative research group led by Prof. Masatoshi Kudo, MD (Chair, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine) conducted a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, phase 3 study and demonstrated that the combination of the molecular targeted agent lenvatinib and the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab in addition to the conventional treatment of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in patients with unresectable non-metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) significantly extended progression-free survival and showed a trend toward extending overall survival compared to TACE alone. Based on the results of this study, it is anticipated that lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab, in combination with TACE, will become the standard of care for patients with unresectable non-metastatic HCC and may lead to a complete cure.
Biopsies guided by high resolution ultrasound are as effective as those using MRI in diagnosing prostate cancer, an international clinical trial has shown.
Two doses of a simple tuberculosis vaccination after surgery helps the immune system fight cancer cells and could greatly improve patient outcomes for the most common type of bladder cancer, according to a pilot study of 40 patients.
New research to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2025, Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May) shows that a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is linked to a subsequent increase in the risk of developing some, but not all, obesity related cancers. The study is by Owen Tipping, University of Manchester, UK, and Professor Andrew Renehan, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, Manchester, UK, and colleagues.
Body size and excess weight, conventionally assessed using body mass index (BMI), are well-established risk factors for many types of cancer. However, new research to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2025, Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May) and published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that waist circumference (WC) is a stronger risk marker than BMI for developing obesity-related cancers in men, but not women. The study was conducted by Dr. Ming Sun, Dr. Josef Fritz and Dr. Tanja Stocks, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden, and colleagues.