New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) shows how a metabolite boosts immune cells against cancer; adds to the understanding of how colorectal cancer spreads; reveals tumor CD19 levels may predict success of CAR T cell therapy; and finds a new targeted drug combination shows promise in early trial for small cell lung cancer.

State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today announced the latest round of seed funding through the Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF), which provides grants to faculty inventors and scientists. Grants totaling $400,000 will support groundbreaking research at five campuses, including: State University of New York at Albany, State University of New York at Binghamton, State University of New York at Buffalo, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

A recent study demonstrates that integrating multi-algorithm bioinformatics with machine learning models reveals peptide deformylase (PDF) as a novel biomarker for “cold” Colorectal cancer. High expression of PDF correlated with poor prognosis, low immune infiltration and high level of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) in Colorectal cancer. This may offer a metabolic–immune roadmap for precision immunotherapy of “cold” Colorectal cancer.

A research team led by Prof. ZHOU Xuyu from the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with researchers from Beijing Ditan Hospital and Capital Medical University, has identified ANKRD11 as a key regulator that reduces the activity of CD8⁺ T cells during chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and cancer. The researchers found that ANKRD11 suppresses the AP-1 signaling pathway, which usually helps CD8⁺ T cells mount effective responses against infections and tumors.

First-line treatment with trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) significantly improved progression-free survival compared with pembrolizumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic HER2-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to primary results from the Phase 3 DESTINY-Lung04 trial presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).

Adding zipalertinib to platinum-pemetrexed chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival in patients receiving first-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations, according to results presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).