In a new collaboration that could transform how cancer is treated, OCCAM Immune—a Mount Sinai initiative focused on understanding the immune system’s role in disease—is partnering with the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) to unlock the secrets of how the immune system responds to advanced therapies. Under the agreement, OCCAM Immune and CRI have established a long-term plan to support ongoing immune monitoring across CRI’s clinical trials. The collaboration provides a flexible framework for launching new projects efficiently and will focus on tracking how patients’ immune systems respond to treatment, with the goal of identifying which patients are most likely to benefit from certain immunotherapies and why.

A new gene-editing method enables researchers to more easily determine whether a patient has inherited an increased risk of developing cancer - before any symptoms appear. Researchers at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen have tested the method in a hospital setting and believe it has the potential to save lives worldwide.

Ageing is the primary risk factor for cancer, dementia, and cardiovascular diseases. As the understanding of the biology of ageing constantly improves, there are already initial approaches to geroprotection, which seeks to reduce the age-related risk of disease and thus extend healthy lifespan. In a discussion paper published today by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the researchers involved recommend a paradigm shift in how research and medicine approach age-related diseases. In the paper “Health-Extending Medicine in an Aging Society – Prospects for Medical Research and Practice” they call for better research into the ageing process, so that medicine can focus on ageing itself – rather than waiting to treat age-related diseases.