♦Successful development of a stealth cloak (invisibility cloak) to protect nanomachines introduced into living organisms from foreign body reactions over extended periods: Constructed a stable ion pair network composed of polyanions and polycations on the nanomachine surface, devising a structure that prevents protein adsorption and attacks from macrophages.

♦Achieved ultra-long circulation in vivo with a half-life exceeding 100 hours after intravenous administration (10 times longer than previous stealth DDS systems).

♦Nanomachines equipped with asparaginase, an enzyme that breaks down L-asparagine, circulate long-term within the body, depleting L-asparagine—essential for cancer cell survival—from tumor tissues.

♦Confirmed the efficacy of starvation therapy for refractory breast cancer using a mouse model.

♦Furthermore, it breaks down the thick stroma (fibrous tissue) that blocks drug penetration into pancreatic cancer (such as immune checkpoint inhibitors), achieving extremely high efficacy (long-term survival) through synergistic effects with cancer immunotherapy.

♦A paper detailing the presentation content：

Junjie Li^*, Kazuko Toh, Panyue Wen, Xueying Liu, Anjaneyulu Dirisala, Haochen Guo, Joachim F. R. Van Guyse, Saed Abbasi, Yasutaka Anraku, Yuki Mochida, Hiroaki Kinoh, Horacio Cabral, Masaru Tanaka, and Kazunori Kataoka^*

Nature Biomedical Engineering (2025)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-025-01534-1

A major international study involving 23,000 people has found concerning evidence about the impact of a range of common, everyday medications on the treatment outcomes for patients with breast cancer.

The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has launched a new clinical trial seeking to evaluate the feasibility of delivering a structured exercise program entirely through telehealth for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy with the ultimate goal of reducing fatigue and disability. The DEFEND (distance-based exercise to preserve function and prevent disability), trial (Alliance A222302) aims to enroll participants between the ages of 18 and 65 who are receiving chemotherapy with curative intent. The study will assess whether virtual exercise sessions, consisting of supervised resistance and aerobic exercise training, can successfully be delivered to patients during treatment. The study will also explore whether the exercise program can help patients maintain physical function, reduce fatigue and prevent disability during treatment, providing critical data to inform the design of a subsequent phase III trial powered to evaluate the impact of exercise on these outcomes. 

New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) uncovers unique genetic signatures in cancer patients of non-European ancestry; identifies social adversity as a potential risk factor for higher rates of triple-negative breast cancer among Black women; shows a web-based system could help head-and-neck cancer survivors report their concerns; and finds adding immunotherapy can boost the effectiveness for hard-to-treat follicular lymphomas.

In a comprehensive review published in MedComm - Oncology, a research team sheds new light on the complex biology and therapeutic challenges of breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBrM). The authors detail the multi-step metastatic cascade, from primary tumor invasion to brain colonization, and highlight key signaling pathways such as TGF-β, Wnt/β-catenin, PI3K/AKT, Notch, HER2-HER3, and JAK/STAT. They also explore the dynamic interactions between tumor cells and the brain microenvironment, including astrocytes, microglia, and neurons, which facilitate immune evasion and metabolic adaptation. The review further discusses advances in preclinical models, emerging CNS-penetrant therapies, and innovative clinical trial designs, offering a roadmap for personalized management of BCBrM.

Some common hormonal contraceptives are linked to a slightly higher risk of breast cancer than others. This is shown by a new Swedish study from Uppsala University, in which researchers followed more than two million women and teenage girls in Sweden to identify how different hormonal contraceptives affect the risk of breast cancer.