Chemotherapy, as one of the primary ways to treat breast cancer, can put patients at high risk of side effects that can affect their adherence to treatment and quality of life. Alternative adjuvant therapy that can alleviate this effect can be beneficial for patients. A new study published in the journal Pharmacia showed that multi-strain probiotics can have impact on chemotherapy-related side effects through improved Karnofsky performance score and Blood Urea Nitrogen in breast cancer patients with chemotherapy.

Researchers from A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (A*STAR IMCB) and local biotechnology company Intra-ImmuSG have announced promising outcomes from a Phase II clinical trial of a novel cancer immunotherapy, PRL3-zumab. Published in Cell Reports Medicine, the study shows PRL3-zumab safely slows disease progression in patients with advanced solid cancers unresponsive to existing treatments.

A single blood test, designed to pick up chemical signals indicative of the presence of many different types of cancer, could potentially thwart progression to advanced disease while the malignancy is still at an early stage and amenable to treatment in up to half of cases, suggests a modelling study published in the open access journal BMJ Open. Incorporating the test, formally known as a multi-cancer early detection test, or MCED for short, either yearly or biennially, could therefore improve outcomes for patients by intercepting disease progression, suggest the researchers.

Researchers looked at PFAS serum concentrations in health care workers for the first time and were surprised by what they found.

Brain metastases often occur as a result of advanced cancer and, despite medical innovations, are still associated with a poor prognosis. Now, an international expert committee led by the Medical University of Vienna and the Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital (LMU) in Munich has taken an important step towards improving diagnostics and therapy monitoring. A special imaging procedure, amino acid PET, can not only improve patient care, but also advance research into the development of new treatment approaches. The first standardised criteria for the use of this method have now been published in the top journal Nature Medicine.