Led by the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, the European ACHILLES project will train 16 researchers in experimental haemato-oncology with the aim of developing new, more effective treatments and diagnostic tools for leukaemia and lymphoma. Over the next few years, researchers will join a European network of 15 leading centres in 12 countries, where they will work with the most advanced technologies to lay the foundations for the therapies of the future.

Researchers have developed a new biomimetic nanocomposite (mPDA-Cas9) for treating triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) by combining CRISPR/Cas9 gene therapy with photothermal therapy. The new nano platform significantly inhibits tumor growth while showing minimal toxicity.

Alliance Foundation Trials, LLC (AFT) today announced the publication of the pivotal phase III PATINA study (AFT-38) in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), marking a major milestone for patients with hormone receptor–positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–positive (HER2+) advanced breast cancer (ABC). The study’s results demonstrate that the addition of the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib to standard first-line maintenance therapy significantly prolongs progression-free survival (PFS) by more than 15 months compared with standard therapy alone.

Cells must faithfully copy their DNA before dividing, a task carried out by polymerases that rely on clamp-like proteins to tether them to the genome. New research shows that one such protein doesn’t just play a catalytic role as a clamp-loader. It also stabilizes the process as it moves the length of the DNA strand. The findings revise our understanding of the fine details of DNA replication and may have implications for human disease.  

A new strategy that combines two types of PET scans can guide personalized radiotherapy for head and neck cancers, according to new research published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Moving beyond the "one-size-fits-all approach," this research shows that treatment can be biologically tailor27 in a clinically feasible way with the potential to improve patient outcomes.

Fecal microbiota transplants (FMT), can dramatically improve cancer treatment, suggest two groundbreaking studies published in the prestigious Nature Medicine journal. The first study shows that the toxic side effects of drugs to treat kidney cancer could be eliminated with FMT. The second study suggests FMT is effective in improving the response to immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer and melanoma.

A study led by researchers from the Resistance, Chemotherapy and Predictive Biomarkers group at the IGTP, published in Clinical and Translational Medicine, provides new evidence on how to improve the efficacy of one of the most widely used chemotherapy combinations in clinical practice for the treatment of colorectal cancer: 5-fluorouracil and irinotecan (FUIRI).