Researchers at the Else Kröner Fresenius Center (EKFZ) for Digital Health at TUD Dresden University of Technology, in collaboration with partners from Germany, the UK and USA, have developed and validated an autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agent capable of supporting clinical decision-making in oncology. The findings were published in the journal Nature Cancer. In the future, AI agents could assist healthcare professionals in navigating complex medical data and supporting informed, personalized treatment decisions for cancer patients.

Every tumor is unique. This makes it difficult to find the most effective therapy for treatment. The Tumor Profiler Center of the University Hospital Zurich, the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and the University Hospital Basel has now carried out a study in which nine different molecular biological technologies were used to precisely measure the properties of the tumor in four weeks and enable a precise treatment decision. The study is the first of its kind in the world.

Recent advances have resulted in highly effective “tissue-agnostic” drugs that treat cancers based on their molecular markers rather than their tissue of origin, but very few of these drugs are approved for use in children. In an opinion paper publishing June 5 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Cancer, oncologists call for “ag(e)nostic” cancer treatments: drugs that are both tissue agnostic and approved for cancer patients of all ages.  

About The Study: Among childhood cancer survivors in this cohort study, obesity was associated with an increased risk for multiple subsequent neoplasm types, while higher physical activity was associated with reduced subsequent neoplasm risk. Lifestyle interventions should be considered in future subsequent neoplasm prevention research.

Colorectal cancer screening programs are currently underutilized in Germany. This also applies to testing for blood in the stool. The immunological stool tests can detect tiny amounts of blood in the stool. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have investigated whether smartphone-based testing could be a meaningful alternative or supplement to traditional laboratory tests.

Recent results from the NRG-NSABP B-51/RTOG 1304 clinical study showed that the addition of regional nodal irradiation (RNI) does not decrease the rates of invasive breast cancer recurrence in patients whose positive axillary nodes at presentation convert to negative following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. These results were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.