Posts by author
Janet Fricker
Smoking cessation fundamental to first-line cancer care
Cancer patients who enter a smoking cessation programme within six months of receiving a diagnosis, and quit within three months after programme entry, experience a 26% reduction in mortality versus those who continue smoking. The study, published in in JAMA…
Large-scale whole genome sequencing identifies six new cancer susceptibility/ resistance genes
Six previously unreported genes have been revealed to harbour rare germline mutations that associate with cancer risk. The study, published in Nature Genetics, 29 October, identified 34 genes associated with cancer risk, including four novel genes associated with increased cancer…
Lessons in nature: knowledge of exceptional animals could help tackle human cancers
Cancer prevalence across vertebrate species increases with higher adult mass and decreases with longer gestation periods. The study, published in Cancer Discovery, October 24, has identified more than 90 different species of animals (including the common dolphin, common porpoise and…
Breast cancer treatments may accelerate ageing
Breast cancer treatments activate genes associated with biological ageing. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 8 October, suggests that chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery all lead to statistically significant increases in cellular senescence and DNA damage…
Targeting a circulating cytokine offers new hope in cancer cachexia
Among patients with cancer cachexia and elevated levels of the cytokine GDF-15, inhibiting GDF-15 with ponsegromab resulted in increased weight gain. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 14 September, showed that in comparison to placebo, patients taking ponsegromab…
Study opens way for using antifibrotic drugs to prevent metastasis
Adding a drug currently used against idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting increased event-free survival in patients with early HER2-negative breast cancer. The study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, 16 September, found that high levels of fibrosis…
Nobel Prize for medicine awarded for discovery of microRNAs, which play key role in cancer development
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, announced on Monday 7 October, has been awarded jointly to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for discovering microRNAs and their role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. The work by Ambros, now at the…
ESMO launches initiative to tackle burnout in oncology healthcare professionals
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) is calling on the oncology community to commit to improving the wellbeing of the cancer workforce. In a paper published in ESMO Open, 10 September, ESMO outlines 11 actions to manage psychosocial risks,…
Antibody-drug conjugate proves effective against active brain metastases
The antibody drug conjugate trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) showed substantial intracranial activity in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer whose disease had metastasised to the brain. The DESTINY-Breast12 study, presented at the Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), held…
Safely pausing or stopping treatment: could this be the future for solid tumours?
The success of treatment cessation in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), outlined in an earlier Cancerworld feature, is opening the way for treatment breaks – or cessation with monitoring – to be considered in advanced solid tumours, including breast, kidney, colorectal,…