A new study by researchers from the the University of Birmingham supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre and the University of Turku, Finland has revealed an important clue as to why immunotherapy fails in many patients with cancer.

The new study published in Theranostics has found for the first tim that a secreted form of a protein called Clever-1 (sClever-1) systemically suppresses the T cells that are essential for fighting cancer, providing a major new insight into the mechanisms of treatment resistance.

An international study, led by Dr. Malu Martínez-Chantar and published in Gut, has identified the protein CNNM4 as a key therapeutic target for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a rare and aggressive liver cancer. CNNM4, which regulates magnesium transport in cells, is overexpressed in CCA. Blocking CNNM4 slowed tumor growth, reduced chemotherapy resistance, prevented metastasis, and triggered ferroptosis, a process that selectively kills cancer cells.

The study also demonstrated that GalNAc siRNA technology can deliver treatments directly to the liver, offering a precise, safe, and potentially effective approach for personalized therapy. Researchers highlight that targeting metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer cells could become a powerful strategy against this challenging disease.

The research involved multiple international centers, emphasizes global scientific collaboration, and forms part of the COST Action CA22125 Precision-BTC Network, showcasing significant progress toward innovative, personalized treatments for CCA.

‘Ovatools’ combines blood test results and age to identify women at higher risk of ovarian cancer for further testing and referral, improving accuracy and patient outcomes cost-effectively.  

Today, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released the 15th edition of its annual Cancer Progress Report. A cornerstone of the AACR’s educational and advocacy efforts, this comprehensive report provides the latest statistics on cancer incidence, mortality, and survivorship and highlights how federal investments in basic, translational, and clinical cancer research and cancer-related population sciences have led to impressive scientific advances that are improving health and saving lives.