One of the challenges of fighting pancreatic cancer is finding ways to penetrate the organ’s dense tissue to define the margins between malignant and normal tissue. A new study uses DNA origami structures to selectively deliver fluorescent imaging agents to pancreatic cancer cells without affecting normal cells. The study, led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign mechanical science and engineering professor Bumsoo Han and professor Jong Hyun Choi at Purdue University, found that specially engineered DNA origami structures carrying imaging dye packets can specifically target human KRAS mutant cancer cells, which are present in 95% of pancreatic cancer cases.

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have made a breakthrough discovery that could potentially revolutionize treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections, cancer and other challenging gram-negative pathogens without relying on precious metals.

The Board of Trustees of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute has approved the appointment of Dr Ari Melnick as the new Director of the centre. Dr Melnick will take on the leadership of the Institute, which focuses on leukaemia and other haematological malignancies research.

Cancer is the leading cause of death globally, with nearly 20 million new cases and 9.7 million deaths in 2022. Due to its vague initial symptoms, cancer is often difficult to detect in its early stages. Liquid biopsy, a revolutionary approach in oncology, provides a minimally invasive, real-time method for cancer detection, monitoring, and characterization by examining circulating tumor components in body fluids. This review presents current technologies and clinical applications of liquid biopsy, focusing particularly on its value for early cancer diagnosis. Liquid biopsy enables molecular profiling of cancer for precision oncology by isolating circulating extracellular nucleic acids (cell-free DNA), circulating tumor DNA, and circulating tumor cells from blood and other body fluids. Cell-free DNA, which circulates freely in the blood, may or may not be tumor-derived, while circulating tumor DNA is specifically of tumor origin. Additionally, circulating tumor cells can be isolated from blood; these cells, shed from tumors into the bloodstream, typically survive only 1–2.5 h before immune clearance, though a small fraction can persist and metastasize to distant sites. Exosomes, small membrane-bound vesicles secreted by tumor cells, also carry molecular information about the tumor and have become a valuable source of biomarkers in liquid biopsy. Advances in detection technologies for these analytes have expanded the utility of liquid biopsy, facilitating the identification of somatic mutations and actionable genomic alterations in tumors. Finally, this review discusses the opportunities and challenges facing liquid biopsy and offers insights into its future development.

Gallbladder cancer (GBC), the most common tumor of the biliary system, is prone to lymph node metastasis. Although extensive studies have been conducted on the etiology and progression of GBC, the underlying mechanism remains elusive, limiting the development of effective treatments. Therefore, identifying novel therapeutic targets is vital. 

An innovative study led by a research team from Wuhan University has systematically evaluated the mortality rates of five major cancers—lung, colorectal, stomach, liver, and pancreatic—across 200 countries from 2011 to 2019. By employing Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR), ARIMA time series analysis, and a Bayesian spatiotemporal model, the study reveals an overall upward trend in global cancer mortality rates, with a more pronounced increase observed in high-income countries. Key contributing factors include aging populations, smoking, unhealthy diets, and lifestyle choices. This novel model not only uncovers spatiotemporal disparities in cancer risk among regions but also provides a robust scientific basis for global cancer prevention and control strategies.

A research team led by Professor ZHAO Guoping at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has unveiled a crucial mechanism that helps regulate DNA damage repair, with important implications for improving cancer treatment outcomes.