Chemotherapy

Modern cancer treatments have greatly improved survival rates, but one huge side effect of some drugs is serious heart damage. In a breakthrough discovery, scientists have found the link that could lead to treatments that don't also attack the heart.

In new hope for aggressive brain cancers, injecting a drug-laden hydrogel into the brain after tumors were surgically removed was found to launch a combined chemo- and immunotherapy attack, preventing cancer from returning in 100% of treated mice.

Some cancer cells develop resistance to chemotherapy. Belgian scientists have investigated the cause of chemotherapy resistance and switched off the gene contributing to it, making cancer cells more sensitive to treatment.

Ovarian cancer is marked by low survival rates and a high rate of recurrence despite treatment. But a promising cancer-fighting drug is undergoing clinical trials, providing hope for women whose cancer has returned following chemotherapy.

Nearly 20,000 women will receive an ovarian cancer diagnosis in 2023. But new findings into how resilient cells help neighbor cells also resist chemotherapy may lead to more effective treatment of a disease that has a recurrence rate of more than 70%.

A combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy has shown promise against stage IV melanoma in a new clinical trial. The chemo drug targets a type of cell that suppresses the immune response, and together the two showed an increased response rate.

Researchers have developed an implantable pump that can deliver chemotherapy drugs directly into the brain to fight hard-to-treat cancer. In a phase 1b trial, patients were able to undergo the therapy while going about their day-to-day activities.

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 By combining a new drug with an outdated one, the team found that they could halt growth of tumors in mice.

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.

The blood-brain barrier keeps your brain safe from toxins, but frustratingly it also keeps important drugs out. MIT researchers have now demonstrated an accurate new model of how this barrier works, which should enable new brain cancer treatments.

Evidence shows fasting diets can enhance cancer treatment and a new mouse study has found adding a keto diet to chemotherapy tripled survival time compared to chemotherapy alone. A human clinical trial testing the combination treatment is now underway.

Researchers have isolated a compound from an Australian desert shrub with a long history of medicinal use by the Indigenous peoples of Australia that could help cancer patients better respond to chemotherapy.