Despite advances in hepatitis B prevention and treatment, achieving a lasting cure remains a major challenge. A new perspective explores China's contribution to developing therapies for chronic hepatitis B, drawing on clinical trials, epidemiological surveys, and real-world studies. The article examines established and emerging treatments, highlighting challenges in patient selection, safety monitoring, and long-term effectiveness, while outlining research priorities for more personalized treatment and improved outcomes. 

Researchers have found a surprisingly common vulnerability in a broad variety of cancers and have begun designing drug compounds to exploit it, in a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings suggest the possibility of a potent, low-side-effect treatment that could benefit many patients with colorectal, breast and other cancer types.

The same H. pylori eradication treatment protects different people by different amounts — and much of that difference is written in the host genome. Analyzing two long-running randomized trials in Shandong, China, a team at Peking University Cancer Hospital identified 11 host genetic variants that modify the preventive effect of eradication and combined them into a polygenic treatment benefit score (PTBS). Among high-benefit individuals, eradication cut gastric cancer risk by 56%–80% (hazard ratios 0.44 and 0.20), with 56 and 26 people needed to treat — versus 112 when treating every infected person; overall risk reduction improved from 22% to 57%. PTBS also stratifies residual risk after eradication, flagging who needs closer endoscopic follow-up. The score is derived and validated in one high-incidence region and awaits testing elsewhere.

A new review in Medicine Plus reframes cGAS-STING as a context-sensitive signaling network rather than a simple immune switch. It explains how DNA source, cell type, signal duration and downstream pathway activation can shift the pathway from host defense and tumor surveillance to chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, fibrosis and cancer progression, and surveys emerging oral, CNS-accessible, metal-based and targeted protein-degradation strategies.

Researchers at West China Hospital, Sichuan University, developed DNA nanomachines that use molecular fillers to improve sensing performance and detect trace circulating tumor DNA without amplification. Clinical plasma studies showed good agreement with qPCR for selected lung and thyroid cancer mutations, supporting potential use in rapid mutation analysis. Exploratory findings also suggested potential for disease monitoring, pending further clinical validation.

The 3rd World Congress on Targeting Extracellular Vesicles, taking place in Porto, Portugal, on November 12–13, 2026, will bring together international researchers to examine the role of extracellular vesicles in cellular communication, neurodegeneration, immunity, cancer and regenerative medicine. The programme includes invited lectures, 16 selected short oral communications and discussions on the scientific and technical challenges of clinical translation.