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To preserve tumour architecture, cellular heterogeneity and the dynamic crosstalk that influences cancer, Fong and colleagues advocate for coordinated, cross-disciplinary and sustained efforts to promote the widespread adoption of tumour explants.
Oncogenic viruses cause 15% of all human cancers. Cats, which are naturally susceptible to cancers caused by feline homologues of human tumour viruses, represent an opportunity to develop treatment and prevention strategies for viral cancers using comparative oncology. Increased investment in this approach could benefit both pets and people.
In a study published in Cell, Xu et al. show that mast cells engineered with tumour-antigen specific antibodies and loaded with an oncolytic virus can be activated by antigen encounter to drive targeted tumour cell killing and amplify local anti-tumour immunity.
In a recent study published in Nature, Natarajan et al. uncover a metabolic–epigenetic circuit in which glutamine-derived itaconate functions as an oncometabolite to sustain oncogenic ZFTA–RELA expression in ependymoma. Disrupting this pathway lowers ZFTA–RELA levels and suppresses tumour growth in preclinical models, revealing a promising therapeutic vulnerability in this aggressive cancer.
In this Journal Club, Siliceo and Rodríguez discuss a study that presents histoCAT, an interactive toolbox for spatial biology that combines image-based visualization with unsupervised cellular neighborhood analysis to uncover tissue architecture and cell–cell interactions.
The conjugation of glycoproteins and glycolipids with the dietary sugar L-fucose is known as fucosylation. In this Progress article, Bitaraf et al. describe the latest work showing how fucosylation is deregulated in cancer, influencing tumour progression and therapeutic responses, and how it might be leveraged to treat cancer.
Artificial intelligence agents are autonomous systems that use large language models to reason and as such can perform complex, multistep tasks with minimal human oversight. This Review by Truhn et al. discusses how these agents — which have already been implemented in several industries — could transform cancer research and oncology, and looks at the challenges that need to be addressed before they can be efficiently and safely used.
Radiation therapy induces immune responses both systemically and within the tumour microenvironment. In this Review, Darragh and Karam present preclinical and clinical evidence to highlight this complex interplay and outline strategies to enhance the immunogenic potential of radiation therapy to improve both therapeutic efficacy and patient outcomes.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is defined by a fibroinflammatory microenvironment, which influences both disease progression and therapy response. In this Review, Arnold et al. outline our current understanding of the complex interplay between the stromal elements of the tumour microenvironment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and present ways we might use this knowledge to develop better therapeutic strategies for patients with pancreatic cancer.
