Drugs, bugs & cancer…

‍A strong week for cancer science, with new findings covering treatment personalisation, the biology of how cancer develops and can be disrupted, sustainable drug production, and the role of gut health in cancer risk.

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Predicting who will benefit from breast cancer immunotherapy

Not everyone with breast cancer responds to immunotherapy — treatments that work by boosting the body's own immune system to fight the disease. A new study of 160 people with breast cancer has made progress towards predicting in advance who is likely to benefit. Researchers found 19 genes in patients' immune cells that play a key role in determining whether those cells will respond to a particular type of immunotherapy. They also found that patients whose immune cells were more genetically varied before treatment started were more likely to respond well. By combining the 19-gene signature with this measure of diversity, they created a single blood-based indicator — a biomarker — that could one day help doctors tailor treatment far more precisely. This is still a research finding, but it is a meaningful step towards more personalised cancer care.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aec2358

How cells self-destruct and what it means for cancer

Healthy cells have built-in self-destruct mechanisms that activate when something goes wrong inside them. One of these is called ferroptosis — a process in which reactive iron molecules build up and trigger the cell's death. This mechanism helps keep cancer in check naturally, because cells behaving abnormally can be eliminated this way. Researchers have now discovered that a natural substance produced in the body called spermine can block this process by trapping iron — effectively switching the self-destruct off. Understanding what turns ferroptosis on or off matters greatly for cancer treatment, because it opens up the possibility of drugs that could restore this protective cell-death pathway in cancer cells that have found ways to evade it. This is early-stage science, but it adds meaningfully to our understanding of how cancer progresses and how it might be disrupted.

Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01802-3

Producing cancer drugs more sustainably

Two important cancer drugs — etoposide and teniposide, used in treating certain lung cancers, leukaemias, and other cancers — are currently derived from plants that are difficult to cultivate at scale and are vulnerable to overharvesting in the wild. Scientists have now developed a way to produce these drugs in yeast, using a specially designed biological manufacturing process. This kind of laboratory-based production could help ensure a more reliable and sustainable supply of medicines that patients depend on, and may eventually help reduce costs. It is a less headline-grabbing development, but a genuinely important one for the practicalities of keeping essential treatments available. ‍Read more: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aef5438

Gut bacteria and colorectal cancer

The bacteria living in our gut — known as the gut microbiota — play a vital role in our health. When this balance is disrupted, a condition called dysbiosis can occur, which has been linked to a range of conditions including colorectal cancer (cancer of the bowel). New research has looked more closely at what actually changes in the gut when dysbiosis occurs. Scientists found that the bacterial community becomes simplified — fewer species dominate, and they tend to cooperate in ways that look very different from a healthy gut, where bacteria mostly compete with one another. Understanding these mechanics more precisely could eventually point to new ways of reducing cancer risk or supporting treatment. This is early research, but it forms part of a growing body of evidence connecting gut health to cancer.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ady1729

As ever, if any of these findings feel relevant to your own situation or someone you care for, please do speak with your clinical team. Research findings take time to translate into clinical practice, and your doctor is best placed to advise on what applies to you.

With thanks to Professor Justin Stebbing for his insights and research.

Math, Coffee and cancer…

This week's newsletter from Professor Stebbing’s insights covered a rich range of cancer topics, from smarter treatment strategies to new drug targets and a genuine milestone in fertility preservation for young patients facing chemotherapy.

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Smarter cancer treatment: working with evolution

‍One of the greatest challenges in treating cancer is that tumours can develop resistance to treatment — they adapt, and drugs that once worked stop working. Researchers are now turning that evolutionary logic around. By applying mathematical models drawn from evolutionary science, scientists have shown that rapidly and strategically switching between multiple therapies — before the tumour has time to adapt — could significantly improve cure rates. Rather than waiting for a treatment to fail, the approach tries to stay one step ahead of the cancer's ability to change. This is still at the research and modelling stage, but trials are being designed to test it in practice.

Read more: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf255

‍Coffee and liver cancer risk: what the evidence shows

A large long-term study has added to the growing body of evidence linking regular coffee consumption with a lower risk of liver disease and liver cancer. People who drank coffee regularly showed lower rates of cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and liver cancer, as well as healthier liver scans with less fat and inflammation. Benefits were visible even at one or two cups a day and were strongest at around three to four cups. The study cannot prove that coffee prevents liver cancer — other lifestyle factors are always in play — but it reinforces a consistent pattern in the research. Moderate coffee drinking appears to be associated with better liver health, which may be of interest to people with liver conditions or those at higher risk.

Read more: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2026.04.035

‍A potential new treatment approach for colorectal cancer ‍

Scientists have identified a promising new angle for treating colorectal cancer — cancer of the bowel or colon. They focused on a protein called NDRG1, which appears at high levels in some cancer cells. When NDRG1 is present in large amounts, it appears to make those cells more sensitive to a drug called quinacrine, which was originally developed as an antimalarial medicine. Cancers carrying specific mutations in DNA repair genes were especially responsive. More research and clinical trials would be needed before this could become a treatment option, but it suggests that testing for NDRG1 levels in tumours could eventually help identify patients most likely to benefit from this approach.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1126/scisignal.adv4272

Fertility preservation: a milestone for young patients

‍For boys and young men who face treatments — including chemotherapy — that can damage fertility, there is new cause for hope. Belgian clinicians have reported the first human case in which testicular tissue removed and frozen before treatment was successfully reimplanted years later and began producing sperm. The patient had undergone treatment for sickle cell disease in childhood, but the same technique of banking testicular tissue before chemotherapy is used for boys with cancer. The sperm produced are not yet accessible in the usual way and assisted reproduction would be required, but this is a genuine scientific milestone — it demonstrates, for the first time in a human, that immature testicular tissue can be preserved and later reactivated.

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‍As ever, if any of these findings feel relevant to your own situation or someone you care for, please do speak with your clinical team. Research findings take time to translate into clinical practice, and your doctor is best placed to advise on what applies to you.

With thanks to Professor Justin Stebbing for his insights and research.‍ ‍