Therapeutic resistance: Transcribing patterns of resistance
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 452 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.59
Author: Sarah Seton-Rogers
Shaffer et al. analysed resistance in melanoma at the single-cell level and found that non-genetic, transcriptional variability in rare cells can predict the eventual emergence of drug resistance. (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - July 25, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Sarah Seton-Rogers Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Tumour vaccines: Personal training by vaccination
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 451 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.61
Author: Ulrike Harjes
Two groups have shown that personalized, neoantigen-based tumour vaccines elicit effective T cell responses in patients with advanced melanoma, leading to favourable clinical outcomes. Combination with checkpoint blockade can be of additional benefit. (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - July 25, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Ulrike Harjes Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Microenvironmental regulation of tumour angiogenesis
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 457 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.51
Authors: Michele De Palma, Daniela Biziato & Tatiana V. Petrova
Tumours display considerable variation in the patterning and properties of angiogenic blood vessels, as well as in their responses to anti-angiogenic therapy. Angiogenic programming of neoplastic tissue is a multidimensional process regulated by cancer cells in concert with a variety of tumour-associated stromal cells and (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - July 14, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Michele De Palma Daniela Biziato Tatiana V. Petrova Tags: Review Source Type: research
Epigenetics: Therapy-induced transcription is cryptically widespread
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 456 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.57
Author: Darren J. Burgess
A new study demonstrates that DNA methyltransferase inhibitors and histone deacetylase inhibitors induce widespread cryptic transcription from transposable elements that may contribute to cancer immunogenicity. (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - July 14, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Darren J. Burgess Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Immunotherapy: Keeping breast cancer in check
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 454 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.55
Author: Liesbet Lieben
Nolan et al. show that triple-negative breast cancers with BRCA1 mutations are immunogenic and susceptible to treatment with a combination of two checkpoint inhibitors and chemotherapy. (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - July 7, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Liesbet Lieben Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Pancreatic cancer: iExosomes target the 'undruggable'
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 452 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.54
Author: Conor A. Bradley
Kamerkar et al. have engineered exosomes that target KRASG12D (iExosomes) and have demonstrated the specificity and efficacy of iExosomes in targeting oncogenic KRAS in mouse models of pancreatic cancer. (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Conor A. Bradley Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Immunotherapy: Macrophages steal the show
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 396 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.47
Author: M. Teresa Villanueva
Pittet and collaborators show that macrophages can remove anti-PD1 antibodies from T cells, blunting their response, whereas Weissman and colleagues demonstrate that macrophages also express PD1 on their surface, which impairs their phagocytic activity. (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 23, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: M. Teresa Villanueva Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Drugging the 'undruggable' cancer targets
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 502 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.36
Authors: Chi V. Dang, E. Premkumar Reddy, Kevan M. Shokat & Laura Soucek
The term 'undruggable' was coined to describe proteins that could not be targeted pharmacologically. However, progress is being made to 'drug' many of these targets, and therefore more appropriate terms might be 'difficult to drug' or 'yet to be drugged'. Many desirable targets in cancer (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 23, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Chi V. Dang E. Premkumar Reddy Kevan M. Shokat Laura Soucek Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research
Turning the tide in myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 425 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.40
Authors: Michael W. N. Deininger, Jeffrey W. Tyner & Eric Solary
Myelodysplastic syndromes/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN) are aggressive myeloid malignancies recognized as a distinct category owing to their unique combination of dysplastic and proliferative features. Although current classification schemes still emphasize morphology and exclusionary criteria, disease-defining somatic mutations and/or germline predisposition alleles are increasingly incorporated into diagnostic (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 23, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Michael W. N. Deininger Jeffrey W. Tyner Eric Solary Tags: Review Source Type: research
Imaging of anticancer drug action in single cells
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 399 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.41
Authors: Miles A. Miller & Ralph Weissleder
Imaging is widely used in anticancer drug development, typically for whole-body tracking of labelled drugs to different organs or to assess drug efficacy through volumetric measurements. However, increasing attention has been drawn to pharmacology at the single-cell level. Diverse cell types, including cancer-associated immune cells, (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 23, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Miles A. Miller Ralph Weissleder Tags: Review Source Type: research
Targeted therapies: Expanding the use of PARP inhibitors
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 397 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.50
Author: Sarah Seton-Rogers
Inhibition of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), which is part of the single-strand break DNA repair pathway, is synthetic lethal with BRCA1- or BRCA2-induced defects in the homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair pathway. Pharmacological PARP inhibitors (PARPis) have been successfully used in cancers with BRCA (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 23, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Sarah Seton-Rogers Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Cancer Models: Modeling clear cell renal cell carcinoma
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 397 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.49
Author: Anna Dart
A new autochthonous genetically engineered mouse model of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) has been developed by combining deletion of the von Hippel–Lindau tumour suppressor gene (Vhl), Trp53 and Rb1 specifically in renal epithelial cells. Tumours arose from proximal tubule (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 23, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Anna Dart Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Tumour metabolism: Losing that remaining fat
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 397 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.48
Author: Anna Dart
Recurrence of breast cancer can result from minimal residual disease. Havas et al. used mouse models and organoid cultures to show that residual cancer cells following tumour regression have a transcriptionally distinct state from that of normal epithelium and primary tumour cells. The transcriptomic (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 23, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Anna Dart Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Tumour immunology: LAP targeting reduces tolerogenic cells in cancer
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 396 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.46
Author: Alexandra Flemming
Anti-LAP antibodies show promising anticancer properties. (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 16, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Alexandra Flemming Tags: Research Highlight Source Type: research
Transposable elements in cancer
Nature Reviews Cancer 17, 415 (2017).
doi:10.1038/nrc.2017.35
Author: Kathleen H. Burns
Transposable elements give rise to interspersed repeats, sequences that comprise most of our genomes. These mobile DNAs have been historically underappreciated — both because they have been presumed to be unimportant, and because their high copy number and variability pose unique technical challenges. Neither impediment (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)
Source: Nature Reviews Cancer - June 9, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Kathleen H. Burns Tags: Review Source Type: research
