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.
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.
(No source link included.)
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.