Posts by year
2020
Link between COVID-19 and prostate cancer raises possibility of new treatments
The overlapping biology identified between the molecular pathogenesis of COVID-19 and prostate cancer raises the possibility of repurposing drugs, including androgen deprivation therapy, for treating COVID-19, suggests a review in Nature Communications Biology, published 8 July. In the review the…
Malignant: Insights into the process of metastasis and how we can stop it
Why and how do cancer cells travel from their original site to seed new tumours elsewhere in the body, and what can be done to stop them? A series of presentations at the virtual June 2020 annual meeting of the…
Does it work for my patient? A pragmatic approach to building evidence on clinical effectiveness
Should patients be at the centre of attention in the development of new cancer drugs? It might seem extraordinary that this question is even asked – what else matters? But it is a question high on the agenda of the…
Solange Peters: ESMO President
The second woman ever to hold the ESMO presidency, Solange Peters brings to the role impressive clinical and research experience in lung cancer, one of the most challenging and fast-moving areas of oncology. Cancer World asked her about how ESMO…
Night-shift work and breast cancer risk: potential biological mechanism identified
Is night-shift work a risk factor for breast cancer? Experimental research just published in Nature Communications gives the molecular basis for asserting that it may well be. Researchers at Paris-Saclay University, with colleagues from Inserm and Inrae, studied the association…
Guiding career paths from trainee doctor to oncology leader
“If you want to be an oncologist you have to go through some struggles. First become a medical doctor and then enter a residents’ training in internal medicine and then medical oncology. If you want to do more, you have…
The burden of thyroid cancer increases worldwide
The global burden of thyroid cancer is increasing worldwide, according to a cross-sectional study with data from 195 countries just published in Jama Network Open. The study, by Jun Lyu and colleagues from the Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, evaluated…
Contagion: a narrative approach to understanding the psychological and social impact of the pandemic
‘Contagion’ seems like an outdated word in medicine. Transmissible illnesses are no longer described as ‘contagious’, they are ‘infectious’, and we study ‘infective’ agents. Contagion is a term evocative of the medical past. Talking and writing about contagion evokes the…
COVID-19 is delaying diagnosis, but getting back to normal is not what we need
Across the globe, all human and technical resources in healthcare are currently focused on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is having an impact on other areas of healthcare. At Digestive Cancers Europe, the patient advocacy group for people with…
AACR: cancer vaccine combination shows clinical activity in advanced solid tumors
According to an industry-funded, preliminary clinical trial presented at the AACR Virtual Annual Meeting currently underway, a personalized cancer vaccine in combination with the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab appears to be well tolerated and to show modest clinical benefit in patients…