Posts by tag
cancer research
Ovarian cancer: mechanism conferring resistance to immunotherapy revealed
The presence of flagella, the propellers bacteria use to move, explains why immune checkpoint inhibitors do not work in patients with ovarian cancer. The study, published in Cancer Immunology Research, 11 February, suggests that immune cell recognition of bacterial flagella,…
The CRISPR revolution: it’s transforming cancer research, can it do the same for treatment?
CRISPR is a revolutionary gene-editing tool that allows scientists to cut DNA with extraordinary precision and make changes to the genome. The technology was a gift to cancer researchers, whose efforts to understand the roles played by different genes rely…
Citizen science: Do your bit for cancer research by playing a game
Calling all gamers ‒ you can do your bit for advancing cancer research by playing a video game. While this may sound like the ultimate excuse, Spanish investigators really have just launched a smartphone game ‒ the GENIGMA challenge ‒…
The development of organoids for cancer research: an ode to the scientific method
Some twenty years ago, I sailed with my two little sons Sander (aged 7) and Max (aged 5) on the Ijsselmeer, formerly a large inner sea in the centre of my country. We passed by a beautiful row of newly…
CCC-19 and TERAVOLT studies show strength and limits of research on cancer and COVID-19
The virtual scientific program of the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting2020 hosted a special session on cancer and COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the Thoracic cancERs international coVid 19 cOLlaboraTion (TERAVOLT) registry and from the COVID-19 and…
Gender equality in cancer research is still far away
Despite a positive trend toward equality in the past 3 decades, a substantial gendered difference is now persisting in oncology publications, favouring male first and last authors. “The academic medicine pipeline poses a significant challenge for workforce development, with disproportionately…
Right drug, wrong patient: here’s how we improve our targeting
When it comes to precision and personalised medicine (PPM), clinical practice in oncology takes pride in developing and administering treatments that selectively target components of tumour cells. But, PPM is a model that also takes into account the inherent variability…