Tumor

A new Harvard study highlights missing pieces of the puzzle in the relationship between cancer and obesity. The team finds that cancer cells can use the higher fat availability to starve immune cells of fuel and prevent them from targeting tumors.

Dormant tumor cells can sit quietly for years but exactly what reactivates these sleeping cancer cells is unknown. A new study is offering a novel hypothesis, suggesting stress hormones can trigger a chain of events that reawaken these dormant cells.

Chemotherapy remains one of our best treatments against cancer but, frustratingly, cancer cells can develop resistance to these drugs. Now, researchers have found that calcium can weaken their defense mechanism, making drugs effective once more.

Researchers in Germany have developed a new drug that can act like a shredder for proteins implicated in causing cancer. In tests on lab-grown cancer cells, the drug worked to kill the tumors, suggesting a new pathway to a treatment for the disease.

Gold has shown promise in fighting cancer in many studies, and now researchers have found a way to grow gold nanoparticles inside cancer cells within 30 minutes. From there, the gold can help with imaging and even be heated up to kill the tumors.

Max Planck researchers have demonstrated an intriguing new way to fight cancer by using molecular fibers that, while harmless to healthy cells, activate a tumor’s self-destruct sequence when they encounter the specific environment of cancer cells.

Immunotherapy is a promising treatment for cancer, but it still has its problems. Now researchers have identified a “jamming signal” that cancer uses to hide from the immune system, and engineered a synthetic immune cell that can fight back.

How cancer develops is a complex puzzle, involving untold moving parts and chemical reactions. Now, scientists have found how two of these pieces work together to prevent cancer forming, which could unlock new types of cancer treatments.

A new study has shown that an experimental class of cancer drugs has wider potential than previously thought. Researchers have found a new type of BET inhibitor that, in mouse tests, can target solid tumors more effectively and safely than others.

Doctors fight cancer with everything from radiation to chemicals to light-reactive particles, with mixed outcomes. Now, a new study has combined two approaches – chemotherapy and light therapy – into one drug, with promising results.

A team of researchers is proposing a radical new technique for killing cancer cells using low-intensity ultrasound waves. The work is still at an early stage but cell tests have shown sound waves can destroy cancer while leaving healthy cells intact.

As promising as immunotherapy is against cancer, these therapies aren’t entirely without risk. But now scientists have developed an emergency brake drug that can switch off the treatment if it begins to spiral out of control.