Cancer News and Discussions

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People who consume sugar-sweetened beverages on a daily basis have higher risk of stomach cancer

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08- ... rages.html

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Laser therapy offers weapon against deadly brain tumors

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08- ... brain.html

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Moderna and Merck say mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in late-stage melanoma trial

A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, added to an existing treatment, slowed the return of melanoma and its spread to other parts of the body in a late-stage clinical trial, the drugmakers Merck and Moderna announced Wednesday, results that could herald a new, powerful approach in oncology.

So-called “neoantigen” vaccines have long been seen as having potential as cancer treatments, but this is the first randomized Phase 3 clinical trial aimed at definitively proving their benefit. In this case the personalized vaccine, intismeran, was combined with Merck’s Keytruda in adjuvant melanoma, meaning patients’ disease had been surgically removed.

If the results hold up — the drugmakers did not immediately release detailed data — they could deliver new hope and potentially longer lives for patients. They could also be a further testament to the power of mRNA as a platform to develop both traditional vaccines and therapeutics.

“I think this is really an important achievement,” said Jedd Wolchok, the director of the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and an immunotherapy pioneer. “It tells us what might have been considered science fiction 15 or 20 years ago — that we can produce a personalized vaccine based on sequencing from a tumor from a pathology specimen — could be used to delay progression of melanoma.

https://www.statnews.com/2026/08/19/mrn ... k-moderna/

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Lung cancer patient becomes tumor-free after treatment with selenite

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08- ... -free.html

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New drug combination may help treat advanced prostate cancer

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08- ... ancer.html

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Pre-cancerous blood cells may fuel disease risk by prematurely aging the bone marrow

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08- ... -fuel.html

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‘Smart’ Nanoparticles Deliver mRNA Directly to Tumors in New Cancer Therapy
By Javier Carbajal
September 16, 2026

Introduction:

(Wired) OUR IMMUNE SYSTEMS don’t just fight bacteria and viruses invading the body. They are responsible for keeping our own tissues in check, taking out cancerous cells before they have a chance to grow. Once a tumor forms, however, it can create an environment that declaws cancer-fighting immune cells—in some cases even reprogramming them to suppress other parts of the immune system.

Overcoming the oppressive tumor environment remains a barrier for even some of the most promising treatments. “One of the biggest challenges in cancer immunotherapy is that the immune system may be capable of attacking a tumor, but the tumor environment can stop those immune cells from doing their job,” University of Adelaide professor Chunxia Zhao explained in a press release.

In a study published this week in Science Advances, Zhao’s team developed a system that can precisely deliver an mRNA therapy to transform immune cells back into allies. The researchers focused on tumor-associated macrophages, which—when rewired by signals from the cancer—hinder the arrival and activity of T cells, one of the body’s main weapons against cancer. The mRNA carries the instructions for producing CXCL9, a chemical signal for recruiting T cells.

Flipping this switch is the easy part. mRNA technologies have been rapidly advancing, especially in the realm of cancer treatments, since they were first introduced to the public as Covid vaccines. However, you don’t want an immune-activating signal going just anywhere in the body. A risk of any immunotherapy is amping up the immune system too much, which can cause dangerous and potentially deadly side effects.

To make sure the mRNA made it directly to the site of the tumor and nowhere else, the researchers developed a delivery method they dubbed “smart” nanoparticles. In any mRNA therapy, including a standard Covid shot, the mRNA is encased in some kind of nanoparticle, usually a lipid envelope. This fatty structure helps the molecules enter cells. In this case, the researchers took this basic technology and added a targeting mechanism to ensure the mRNA only got into the right cells.

Read more here: https://www.wired.com/story/smart-nan ... 2z4hk1wry

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