News • Leukemia research
How 'chameleon cancers' change their colors to survive treatment
Some leukemias evade treatment by changing their appearance and identity through changing the read-out of their DNA, a new study has found.
Cancer
News • Filopodia research
'Sticky fingers' in cells keep breast cancer contained
Researchers in Finland have identified that finger-like cellular extensions called filopodia contribute to building a barrier surrounding breast tumours.
News • CSCC study finds distinct subgroups
Cervical cancer: major new clue to understanding aggressiveness
Scientists have discovered that cervical cancer can be divided into 2 distinct molecular subgroups – one far more aggressive than the other – as part of the largest ‘omics’ study of its kind.
News • Children’s cancer
Rhabdomyosarcoma: Blood tests could offer smarter treatment
A simple 'liquid biopsy' blood test could help guide the treatment of children with the cancer rhabdomyosarcoma, a new study reports.
Article • Diagnostic assistant systems
AI in endoscopy: helper, trainer – influencer?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing its foothold in endoscopy. Although the algorithms often detect pathologies faster than humans, their use also generates new problems. PD Dr Alexander Hann from the University Hospital Würzburg points out that the use of AI helpers can affect not only the reporting of findings – but also the person making the findings.
Article • AI provides prognostic information
Next-generation deep learning models predict cancer survival
Deaths from cancer are currently estimated at 10 million each year worldwide. Conventional cancer staging systems aim to categorize patients into different groups with distinct outcomes. ‘However, even within a specific stage, there is often substantial variation in patient outcomes,’ Markus Plass, academic researcher from the Medical University of Graz, Austria, explained to Healthcare in…
CNN applications in pathology
‘Deep learning can predict survival directly from histology in clear cell renal cell carcinoma’
Renal cell carcinoma is among the fifteen most common cancers worldwide. Dr Titus Brinker, from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), looked at whether a convolutional neural network (CNN) can extract relevant image features from a typical H&E-stained slide to predict 5-year overall survival.
Malignant tumour management
’Our machine learning model achieved 88.9% accuracy in predicting the sarcoma-specific survival rate’
Clinical management of soft tissue sarcoma is particularly challenging. Dr Sebastian Foersch, researcher at the Institute of Pathology at the University Medical Center in Mainz, Germany, has used a deep learning model for diagnosis and prognosis prediction of soft tissue sarcoma using conventional histopathology slides.
Supervised learning approach
A new deep learning-based algorithm to predict relapse-free survival in papillary thyroid carcinoma
The tall cell variant (TCV) is an aggressive subtype of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Sebastian Stenman, researcher from the Institute for Molecular Medicine, and the Department of Pathology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, is developing and training a deep learning algorithm using supervised learning to detect and quantify the proportion of tall cells in PTC.
Article • Patient care
Molecular Tumour Board for better decision-making
As more genomic alterations become targets for therapy, health institutions and hospitals are creating specialist Molecular Tumour Boards to support better decision-making for patient care. This evolving team, and its role, was highlighted in a presentation at the 34th European Congress of Pathology in Basel, Switzerland.
Article • Prediction for breast, ovarian, cervical, and endometrial carcinoma
New test detects four women’s cancers from cervical screening samples
What if a test analysing cervical cells from a gynaecological swab could be used to detect four different female cancers at an early stage and also predict cancer risk over a healthy woman's lifetime? Researchers at the EUTOPS Institute in Innsbruck, Austria, are developing tests to do just that for breast, ovarian, cervical, and endometrial cancer detection.
News • Appeal for imaging improvements
Study reveals alarming failures in pancreatic cancer detection
Pancreatic cancer tumours are being missed on CT and MRI scans, narrowing the window for life-saving curative surgery, research presented at UEG Week 2022 has revealed.
News • New imaging method
Delayed fluorescence for effective surgical tumor removal
Researchers propose a new approach to identify cancerous tissue for surgical removal, based on real-time imaging of tissue oxygen concentration.
News • Prevention measure scrutinised
Colorectal cancer: colonoscopy screening not as effective as previously believed
A randomized study shows colonoscopy screening reduces the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent. The reduction is much smaller than experts previously assumed.
News • Model system shows tumor grwoth
Novel organoid model for pancreatic cancer
Researchers in Munich have developed a novel model system that can be used to precisely track the growth steps and three-dimensional arrangement of pancreatic cancer cells.
News • Insights into stem cell behaviour
Breast cancer: new mechanism of drug resistance discovered
Scientists in Italy discovered a new drug-resistance mechanism in breast cancer that leads to the formation of cancer stem cells. They also devised an experimental therapy to bypass or prevent this.
News • How cancer spreads
Cancer metastasis: Breakthrough to lead to better treatments
Cambridge scientists have discovered that cancer cells ‘hijack’ a process used by healthy cells to spread around the body, completely changing current ways of thinking around cancer metastasis.
News • Cancer research
Key function of important leukemia gene demystified
The oncogene EVI1 causes an aggressive type of leukemia, but its exact function has been a mystery. A research team now showed that EVI1's cancer causing effect relies on activating a single gene — the stem cell transcription factor ERG.
Article • Patient front and centre
One-Stop Clinic: diagnosis and treatment in one day, on one site, by one team
Cancer – one word that turns the patients’ world upside down. In addition to uncertainty and fear, they often face an unnerving series of exams and treatments. With its new One-Stop Clinic concept, GE Healthcare now wants to help make this journey as smooth as possible. At a single location, in an environment designed for comfort, the patients undergo all necessary steps within a short period…
News • Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma
Promising new treatment for deadly pediatric tumor
Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare pediatric tumor. For more than 40 years there has not been any new development regarding treatment. Research led by Prof. Dr. Anton Henssen at Charité University Berlin has now identified a new therapeutic option, using a drug that is currently under investigation for other types of cancer.
News • Lung adenocarcinoma
Therapeutic target against common lung cancer identified
A new study led by researchers in Barcelona has determined the protein TIMP-1 as a valuable biomarker for the progression of lung adenocarcinoma. The results open the door to new treatments.
Article • Interpreter of maladies
Will AI help realize the promise of precision medicine?
Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to transform cancer treatment management worldwide. Their ability to rapidly analyse and integrate routinely acquired diverse data will improve the accuracy and effectiveness of precision medical treatments.
News • Precision oncology
What's new in cancer therapy?
Researchers from the University of Bern and Inselspital provide an overview of the latest technologies in precision oncology. Translating these into clinical application is still a major challenge.
News • Desperate cancer cells
How tumors mutate their way out of a crisis (and become drug-resistant)
Researchers discovered that cancer cells mobilize a SOS response when they are desperate to resist anticancer drugs. The team also came up with an anti-SOS approach that blocked the mechanism in mice.
Article • Modelling systems for human biology
Organoid technology: new opportunities for drug discovery
Two-dimensional (2D) cultured cell lines and animal models have been the principal research tools for the past decade, but have several shortcomings. Three-dimensional cell cultures, or organoids, show great promise here.