Metastatic melanoma cells that have spread to lymph nodes survive by relying on a protein called ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1)—a surprising metabolic dependency that could open the door to a new class of cancer treatments, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers say the study not only highlights the therapeutic potential of drugs that inhibit FSP1, but also offers new ways to understand cancer and its vulnerabilities.

New prostate cancer research from an international team led by the Center for Genetic Epidemiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC has yielded discoveries that could improve screening and treatment for patients of African ancestry. The scientists identified variants of five genes —ATM, BRCA2, CHEK2, HOXB13 and PALB2—linked in this population to aggressive disease or to cancer that spreads, or metastasizes, to other organs. The study also found a wide range of risk among participants. By combining data on the five specific genes with the polygenic risk score for prostate cancer and information about family history of prostate cancer, the researchers introduced a method that could help identify those most likely to face deadlier forms of the disease.  The research included data and samples from more than 12,000 Black men from North America and Africa. This included over 7,000 prostate cancer cases and a control group of nearly 5,000. Study participants carrying disease-causing variants of these genes were up to six times as likely to develop prostate cancer compared to those without them. Carriers of dangerous genetic variants who also had prostate cancer in their families and polygenic risk scores in the top 10% faced the highest risk of potentially life-threatening disease. Compared to those at average risk, they were seven times more likely to develop prostate cancer, 18 times more likely to have aggressive disease, and 34 times more likely to get metastatic cancer.

Microscopic bioelectronic devices could one day travel through the body’s circulatory system and autonomously self-implant in a target region of the brain. These “circulatronics” can be wirelessly powered to provide focused electrical stimulation to a precise region of the brain, which could be used to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.

Cancer Research UK and Wellcome Trust-funded scientists at The Institute for Cancer Research, London, find the key point determining how bowel cancer will grow. “Big Bang” moment occurs when bowel cancer cells successfully hide themselves from the immune system. Further research could find which people with bowel cancer will respond to immunotherapies and bowel cancer vaccines in future.