How Cancer Spreads: Emerging Insights About Metastasis July 10, 2025
Introduction:
(Eurekalert ) Deaths from cancer have fallen dramatically. They’ve dropped by 34% over the past three decades — largely thanks to better treatments, earlier detection, and fewer people smoking. But cancer metastasis remains a stubborn threat.
Metastasis is the name for cancer that has spread from an initial, or “primary” tumor, to other parts of the body. It’s also called stage 4 cancer.
The vast majority of deaths caused by cancer — as many as 9 in 10 — are caused not by an initial tumor, but rather by the impacts of metastasis.
At the same time, metastasis remains poorly understood relative to its importance. Its biology is complex, and it can take a long time to develop, making it challenging and costly to study both in the lab and in people.
“Unlike primary tumors, metastasis is not generally driven by genetic mutations — that is, by changes in the DNA that disrupt the normal function of genes,” says Joan Massagué, PhD, a world-renowned metastasis researcher and Chief Scientific Officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). “Metastasis is initiated and sustained by self-renewing cancer cells that act like stem cells, and which have the capacity to hide from our immune defenders for month, years, even decades — until the conditions are ripe to generate a new tumor.”
Wireless Implant Delivers Chemotherapy Deep into Tumors—Without Side Effects July 10, 2025
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Researchers from Seoul National University (Prof. Seung-Kyun Kang), the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, KIST (Dr. Hyojin Lee), Kwangwoon University (Prof. Jeonghyun Kim), and Gyeongsang National University (Prof. Seongchan Kim) have developed a wireless implantable drug delivery system that enables anticancer drugs to penetrate deep into solid tumors—without harming surrounding healthy tissue. The multidisciplinary team, led by experts in materials science, bioelectronics, and pharmaceutical engineering, offers a new strategy to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy while minimizing side effects.
Solid tumors, due to their dense cellular architecture and elevated interstitial pressure, have long resisted conventional drug therapies. Anticancer drugs delivered via injection often remain trapped in the outer regions of a tumor, requiring high systemic doses to achieve therapeutic effect. This approach increases the risk of severe side effects such as immune suppression, gastrointestinal toxicity, and the rapid emergence of drug resistance.
To solve this challenge, the research team developed the Dual-Phoretic Wireless Drug Delivery System (DPw-DDS)—a fully implantable device that uses two ionic transport mechanisms. First, electrophoresis enables on-demand, pulsatile, and quantitative release of drugs using an ion-selective diode. Second, iontophoresis employs electric fields to push those drugs deep into tumor tissue.
Importantly, the system is wirelessly powered using Near-Field Communication (NFC), allowing fully untethered operation without the need for external wiring or batteries. All essential drug delivery steps—storage, release, penetration, and dosing—are integrated into a single, compact device designed for subcutaneous implantation.
Following on from their breakthrough human trial that successfully reprogrammed the immune system to overpower glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor, the same scientists have now further developed the mRNA vaccine to fight not one but any cancer. It has the potential to do away with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation treatment.
University of Florida (UF) scientists have developed an experimental vaccine that dramatically boosts the immune system’s ability to fight tumors – even without targeting a specific cancer type. This "general purpose" mRNA jab works in a similar way to a Covid-19 vaccine but with a different target; it instructs the body's immune cells to rally and hit any kind of tumor in the same way they would attack a viral spike protein.
“This paper describes a very unexpected and exciting observation: that even a vaccine not specific to any particular tumor or virus – so long as it is an mRNA vaccine – could lead to tumor-specific effects,” said Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist and principal investigator at the RNA Engineering Laboratory at UF. “This finding is a proof of concept that these vaccines potentially could be commercialized as universal cancer vaccines to sensitize the immune system against a patient’s individual tumor."
Microrobotic Swarms for Cancer Therapy July 16, 2025
Introduction:
(Eureklaert) Cancer remains one of the most challenging diseases to treat, as conventional therapies like chemotherapy and radiotherapy are often hindered by poor specificity, systemic toxicity, and damage to healthy tissues. In contrast, microrobotic swarms have emerged as a transformative approach, providing enhanced targeting precision, multimodal therapy, and minimally invasive capabilities. Unlike conventional methods that rely on passive diffusion or systemic circulation, microrobotic swarms actively navigate complex biological environments to deliver therapeutic agents directly to tumor sites, thereby reducing off-target effects and enabling real-time monitoring. These swarms can perform multiple functions simultaneously, such as drug delivery, imaging, and hyperthermia, while adapting to dynamic environments for precise cancer treatment.
Prof. Jiangfan Yu's team at the School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), has summarized the applications of microrobots in cancer therapy from the perspective of swarms (Fig. 1- see linked article). This review systematically discusses the design of microrobots for cancer therapy, focusing on three main strategies: tumor cell elimination, tumor infiltration, and tumor immunomodulation. Thereafter, the delivery and imaging strategies of swarms in vivo are introduced. Finally, the article summarizes current applications of microrobotic swarms across tumors in various organs and discusses the challenges and future directions to enhance cancer treatment efficiency.
By sparking the immune system into action, radiation therapy makes certain tumors that resist immunotherapy susceptible to the treatment, leading to positive outcomes for patients, according to new research by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and the Netherlands Cancer Institute.
In the study, published in Nature Cancer, investigators dove deep into the molecular biology of non-small cell lung cancer to pinpoint what happens on a cellular and molecular level over time when the cancer is treated with either radiation therapy followed by immunotherapy or immunotherapy alone.
On the left are pancreas cells showing early stages of malignant cancer in brown. On the right, the same cells stained blue indicate they are Integrin β3 (ITGB3) positive. Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences
Precancerous cells must adapt to and overcome cellular stress and inflammation in order to progress and form malignant tumors. Now, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a link between stress and inflammation and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), one of the most aggressive and lethal types of cancer.
The findings, published in Cell Reports, could serve as an early warning system for the disease, leading to the detection of PDAC before it becomes life-threatening.
Surprising Finding Could Pave Way for Universal Cancer Vaccine July 18, 2025
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) An experimental mRNA vaccine boosted the tumor-fighting effects of immunotherapy in a mouse-model study, bringing researchers one step closer to their goal of developing a universal vaccine to “wake up” the immune system against cancer.
Published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the University of Florida study showed that like a one-two punch, pairing the test vaccine with common anticancer drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors triggered a strong antitumor response.
A surprising element, researchers said, was that they achieved the promising results not by attacking a specific target protein expressed in the tumor, but by simply revving up the immune system — spurring it to respond as if fighting a virus. They did this by stimulating the expression of a protein called PD-L1 inside of tumors, making them more receptive to treatment. The research was supported by multiple federal agencies and foundations, including the National Institutes of Health.
Senior author Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a UF Health pediatric oncologist, said the results reveal a potential new treatment path — an alternative to surgery, radiation and chemotherapy — with broad implications for battling many types of treatment-resistant tumors.
“This paper describes a very unexpected and exciting observation: that even a vaccine not specific to any particular tumor or virus — so long as it is an mRNA vaccine — could lead to tumor-specific effects,” said Sayour, principal investigator at the RNA Engineering Laboratory within UF’s Preston A. Wells Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy.
Engineers Take a Closer Look at How a Plant Virus Primes the Immune System to Fight Cancer July 24, 2025
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) A virus that typically infects black-eyed peas is showing great promise as a low-cost, potent cancer immunotherapy—and researchers are uncovering why.
In a study published in Cell Biomaterials, a team led by chemical and nano engineers at the University of California San Diego took a closer look at how the cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), unlike other plant viruses, is uniquely effective at activating the body’s immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.
In preclinical studies, CPMV has demonstrated potent anti-tumor effects in multiple mouse models, as well as in canine cancer patients. When injected directly into tumors, CPMV therapy recruits innate immune cells—such as neutrophils, macrophages and natural killer cells—into the tumor microenvironment to destroy cancer cells. Meanwhile, it activates B cells and T cells to establish systemic, long-lasting anti-tumor memory. This immune reawakening not only helps clear the targeted tumor but also primes the immune system to hunt down metastatic tumors elsewhere in the body.
“It is fascinating that CPMV but not other plant viruses stimulates an anti-tumor response,” said Nicole Steinmetz, the Leo and Trude Szilard Chancellor's Endowed Chair in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and the study’s corresponding author.
“This work gives us insight into how CPMV works so well,” said study first author Anthony Omole, a chemical and nano engineering Ph.D. student in Steinmetz’s lab. “What we found most exciting is that although human immune cells are not infected by CPMV, they respond to it and are reprogrammed towards an activated state, which ultimately trains them to detect and eradicate cancerous cells.”
AI Platform Designs Molecular Missiles to Attack Cancer Cells July 24, 2025
Introduction:
(Eureklaert) Precision cancer treatment on a larger scale is moving closer after researchers have developed an AI platform that can tailor protein components and arm the patient's immune cells to fight cancer. The new method, published in the scientific journal Science, demonstrates for the first time, that it is possible to design proteins in the computer for redirecting immune cells to target cancer cells through pMHC molecules.
This dramatically shortens the process of finding effective molecules for cancer treatment from years to a few weeks.
"We are essentially creating a new set of eyes for the immune system. Current methods for individual cancer treatment are based on finding so-called T-cell receptors in the immune system of a patient or donor that can be used for treatment. This is a very time-consuming and challenging process. Our platform designs molecular keys to target cancer cells using the AI platform, and it does so at incredible speed, so that a new lead molecule can be ready within 4-6 weeks," says Associate Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and last author of the study Timothy P. Jenkins.
Targeted missiles against cancer
The AI platform, developed by a team from DTU and the American Scripps Research Institute, aims to solve a major challenge in cancer immunotherapy by demonstrating how scientists can generate target treatments for tumor cells and avoid damaging healthy tissue.
Researchers have found a powerful new way to kill cancer cells—by making them explode from the inside out.
A sugar compound, discovered in deep-sea bacteria, triggers a fiery type of cell death called pyroptosis. This compound not only destroys cancer cells but also signals the immune system to join the fight. It worked in lab experiments and in mice, showing strong anti-tumor effects. The discovery opens the door to an exciting new approach in cancer treatment, using nature’s own molecules to unleash targeted destruction.
Traditional drug development methods involve identifying a target protein (e.g., a cancer cell receptor) that causes disease, and then searching through countless molecular candidates (potential drugs) that could bind to that protein and block its function. This process is costly, time-consuming, and has a low success rate.
KAIST researchers have developed an AI model that, using only information about the target protein, can design optimal drug candidates without any prior molecular data—opening up new possibilities for drug discovery. The research is published in the journal Advanced Science.
A cancer drug could enhance how patients respond to chemotherapy even in treatment-resistant tumors. The drug works by disarming a key defense mechanism that tumors use to protect themselves from treatment. In preclinical models, it has already shown promise in making chemotherapy-resistant cancers more responsive to therapy.
Chemotherapy is one of the most widely used cancer treatments, but it doesn't always work as effectively as hoped. One major reason is that a specific group of the body's own immune cells act as a barrier around tumors. These white blood cells, known as macrophages, surround the blood vessels inside tumors and act like gatekeepers, blocking helpful immune cells from entering and doing their job in supporting the responses to chemotherapy.
The King's College London scientists, who have launched a spinout company, Aethox Therapeutics, found that these macrophages make a protein called heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which helps shield the tumor from the immune system and block the effects of chemotherapy. The new drug, KCL-HO-1i, targets this protein.
Treasured forest fungus fights inflammation and stifles cancer cells
A newly discovered natural compound sourced from a fungus that's historically only been found lodged on trees in Taiwan has been heralded for its pharmaceutical potential, effectively blocking inflammation signals and pressing pause on the proliferation of cancer cells.
Researchers from the National Taiwan University (NTU) and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University have uncovered a potent new compound in a rare medicinal mushroom found only among the island's mountainous forests, which has a double-threat – fighting both cancer and inflammation. Taiwanofungus camphoratus, once known as Antrodia cinnamomea, grows exclusively inside the decaying heartwood of the endangered stout camphor tree (Cinnamomum kanehirae).
