A groundbreaking new study from the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology aims to test whether digital tools and chatbot technology can help young adult cancer survivors get the genetic counseling they need to better understand future health risks to themselves and family members.

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have demonstrated that pulsed low dose rate (PLDR) chemoradiation therapy can significantly reduce side effects while maintaining treatment effectiveness for patients with esophageal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. The phase I trial results, presented Tuesday, Sept. 30 at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 2025 Annual Meeting, mark an important step toward validating PLDR as a first-line treatment option before surgery. 

Researchers at the Mount Sinai Health System have identified specific ways in which addressing religion and spirituality during radiation therapy can play an important role in the care of patients with gynecologic cancers. The study, published in the September/October 2025 issue of Practical Radiation Oncology, is the first to identify which aspects of spiritual history patients themselves prioritize and find most meaningful.

About The Study: This single-center cohort study found that an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven pipeline can successfully automate lymph node segmentation and imaging-based extranodal extension (iENE) classification from pretreatment computed tomography scans in human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma. Predicted iENE was independently associated with worse oncologic outcomes. External validation is required to assess generalizability and the potential for implementation in institutions without specialized imaging expertise.

Metaplastic breast carcinoma, a rare entity (<1% of breast neoplasms), lacks comprehensive spectroscopic characterization. This study aimed to address this gap by providing a qualitative and quantitative spectroscopic profile of metaplastic carcinoma in comparison to ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC).

Results from the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) analysis of the University of Pennsylvania and RTOG Foundation RadComp study indicated that both photon and proton radiation treatment options yielded similar, excellent HRQOL outcomes for women with non-metastatic breast cancer. RadComp was the first randomized study comparing proton to photon radiation for breast cancer treatment.

Breast cancer survivors with severe menopausal symptoms should be supported to make an informed decision about whether to have hormone replacement therapy or not, according to an interdisciplinary panel of experts including researchers from UCL.