Tumour biomarkers articles from across Nature Portfolio

Abumanhal-Masarweh et al. profile plasma proteomes of cancer patients during radiotherapy and detect acute changes in inflammatory and immune pathways. Correlating these changes with toxicity data enables identification of a predictive signature for radiation-induced toxicities.

The efficacy of immunotherapy in microsatellite stable colorectal cancer is limited. Here, the authors show that within the Phase II NIVACOR trial, genomic and transcriptomic profiling is associated with treatment activity.

A study meticulously uncovers bacterial elements within malignant brain tumors; the approach opens avenues for understanding brain cancer biology and provides a blueprint for studying microbial signals in other low-biomass tissues.

Urine-based tumour DNA detection enables non-invasive profiling of urological malignancies and may inform on distant cancers via trans-renal cell-free DNA (cfDNA). Here the authors propose the ‘minimal urine methods in experiments’ (MUMIE) framework to enhance validation and standardization of urinary cfDNA biomarkers.

New research has provided a comprehensive molecular understanding of fumarate hydratase-deficient renal cell carcinoma, showing distinct molecular divergence from other renal tumour subtypes. These molecular findings have implications for precision oncology for patients with this rare disease.