Cancer

A newly developed, highly sensitive biosensor likened to a “deep surveillance” system has hinted at more accurate ways to diagnose brain cancer, with an ability to detect and pinpoint the location of tumors from less than a drop of blood.

Scientists at Cambridge have identified a protein that plays a key role in cancer metastasis, which not only hints at a new potential treatment but reveals for the first time that this process isn’t unique to cancer, as previously thought.

A pair of new studies have reported novel links between fungal microorganisms and cancer. The research reports different types of tumors seem to harbor unique fungal populations, raising the possibility of new ways to diagnose and treat cancer.

Scientists have genetically modified a strain of the herpes virus to act as a cancer-killing agent in humans. Findings from an initial human trial are encouraging, with the experimental treatment proving safe and promisingly effective.

The relationship between sugar and human health is a complex one, but new research has added some valuable new detail around the habitual consumption of the sweet stuff, finding an increase in risk of death from obesity-related cancer.

Getting cancer drugs to the right place in the right quantities is a perpetual problem for medical scientists, but a group from University of California, Los Angeles has developed a new drug delivery system to address the problem.

Scientists at the University of California San Francisco have found a way to fight one of the most common cancer-causing mutations. The new drug puts up an “eat me” marker that can help the immune system or other drugs find and kill the cancer.

Extraordinary research has presented a new hypothesis as to how cancer develops, inspired by a forgotten study from 75 years ago. The research showed how pre-existing mutations in healthy tissue can be prompted into tumorous proliferation by air pollution.

By deploying a newly-developed drug against a key energy source of cancer cells, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have developed a new way of eliminating them in mere hours.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the deadliest forms of the disease, but now scientists may have a promising new avenue for treatment. By combining a new drug with an outdated one, the team found that they could halt growth of tumors in mice.

A study has found an old antipsychotic drug blocks a signaling pathway that has been linked to chronic pain. The surprising findings not only point to novel treatments for pain but reveal an unexpected association between chronic pain and lung cancer.

It takes tons of plant matter to make each gram of the cancer drug vinblastine. To find an alternative source, scientists have engineered yeast to produce the precursors of vinblastine, which could help make this vital drug more available and affordable.