As April showers bring May flowers, the editors of the 10 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) journals shower us with their picks of this month’s most blossoming studies.   For April, the editors selected two studies about metabolic interventions for acute myeloid leukemia, an analysis of how serum microRNAs (miRNAs) used for ovarian cancer screening might differ by race, a new inhibitor that acts upstream of KRAS, and more. The abstract of each highlighted study is included below, and each article is freely available for a limited time.  Journal: Blood Cancer Disco ..read more

When the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting featured a plenary session focused on metastasis in 2010, our understanding of the complex process was far different than it is today.  “Back then, our textbook understanding of metastasis was … a linear process of obligate steps,” said Cyrus M. Ghajar, PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, who chaired a new metastasis-focused plenary session at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024, held in San Diego April 5-10.   Cyrus M. Ghajar, PhD. Photo by © AACR/Phil McCarten 2024. Ghajar explained that our understanding has ..read more

Cancer is a highly complex disease, in part because of the ecosystems (or microenvironments) in which tumors reside. With a multitude of cell types and microorganisms, the tumor microenvironment can influence how cancer forms, whether it spreads, and how it responds to treatment. Making progress against cancer, therefore, will require a thorough understanding of the intricate relationships that exist between cancers and their microenvironments.  Fortunately, recent technological advances have enabled researchers to study the tumor microenvironment in unprecedented detail and decipher man ..read more

If you are a cancer researcher, what is your first reaction when someone asks you, “What are you researching on?”  Do you easily explain your work in simple language, sprinkling in analogies and fun facts? Or do you pause, wondering where to start and what to say?  As brilliant as researchers are, many find it daunting to communicate their science in an easily understood form, thus often shutting themselves and their discoveries off from the public and instead sharing them only among their peers.   It is crucial, however, that the public understands the latest scientific a ..read more

Groundbreaking clinical developments begin with fundamental research at the lab bench. Bench research depends on technological advances to allow scientists to reconceptualize problems and find new solutions for patients. The full spectrum of cancer research encompasses all of these facets working together as a well-oiled machine.  It’s a paradigm that the program chairs of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024, held April 5-10 in San Diego, wanted at the foundation of the meeting.  “[We made] a concerted effort to weave technology into the scientifi ..read more

In 1796, Edward Jenner inoculated a young boy with cowpox to protect him from smallpox, an early example of vaccination.  Fast forward 200+ years: smallpox has been eradicated, and the cowpox virus (now known as vaccinia virus) is being used to develop an entirely different type of vaccine—one that treats cancer.  Unlike preventive vaccines, such as those that protect against COVID-19 and the flu, therapeutic cancer vaccines are designed to treat existing cancers by training the patient’s immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells.   At the American Association fo ..read more

“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest, but the myth—persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.” When John F. Kennedy delivered that remark, he wasn’t referring to prostate cancer, but his lesson applies nonetheless. It is a fact that the incidence of prostate cancer is 60% higher in Black men compared to white men in the United States. But a common myth that if you feel fine then you don’t need a prostate exam may prevent people from getting screened. It is a fact that Black men are 2.2 times more likely to die from prostate cancer than white m ..read more

Seventy percent of cancer-related deaths are from cancer types with no available screening options, underscoring the importance of detecting cancer early when it is more easily treated. The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024, held April 5-10, kicked off its plenary program with a session on Discovery Science in Early Cancer Biology and Interception, which was chaired by Daniel De Carvalho, PhD, a professor at University of Toronto and researcher at the Princess Margaret Research Centre.  Daniel De Carvalho, PhD. Photo by © AACR/Scott Morgan 2024. “[Early ..read more

A patient finding hope in a clinical trial for a KRAS-targeted therapy after years of having little progress with other treatments. Exposing how more than 90 countries around the world—many of them low- and middle-income nations—were being sent a poor-quality version of a key chemotherapy drug for the treatment of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Two breast cancer survivors expressing their frustration with a change in medical insurance codes being the barrier to getting the breast reconstruction surgery they preferred. Examining why 4,310 women in the United States were esti ..read more

Back in 1992, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established its Accelerated Approval Program so drugs that treat serious conditions and fill an unmet need could get to patients faster. This expedited approval is based on surrogate endpoints—such as a laboratory measurement, radiographic image, or physical sign—that the FDA says “is not itself a direct measurement of clinical benefit” but “is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit.” That’s why these drugs must still be tested in a confirmatory trial that “shows that the drug actually provides a clinical benefit,” before it is ..read more