A large-scale analysis of real-world data in Nature Medicine has revealed racial disparities in the occurrence of immune-related adverse events during cancer immunotherapy. These disparities were not evident in clinical trial data because enrolled patients were mostly white. The study was published online on 15 October 2026.
A Hiroshima University review published in The Lancet Regional Health-Western Pacific finds that decades of national viral hepatitis control in Japan cut HBV and HCV prevalence sharply and reduced hepatocellular carcinoma mortality. HBsAg prevalence among first-time blood donors fell from 0.63% in 1995-2000 to 0.13% in 2017-2021, and the share of HCC deaths from nonviral causes rose from 6.8% in 1992 to 56.0% in 2019. The authors identify remaining gaps, including hepatitis in PWID, MSM, migrant and incarcerated populations, as Japan works toward the WHO 2030 elimination targets, and offer transferable lessons for other countries.
Hokkaido University researchers, working with an international team led by University of South Florida Health and Tampa General Hospital, have shown that the 30-year-old sphingolipid rheostat model operates in the tumor microenvironment rather than inside cancer cells in metastatic colorectal cancer. Analysis of 574 human colon cancer tissue samples showed that rising sphingosine-1-phosphate and falling long-chain ceramide create a biochemical barrier that excludes cytotoxic T cells. In lab experiments, blocking S1P/S1PR3 let killer T cells attack tumors again, pointing to a combination strategy with immunotherapy.
Why it matters: It explains a mechanism of immunotherapy resistance in metastatic colorectal cancer and identifies a druggable pathway.
Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, announced on 7 October, for work on how living organisms produce molecules of only one of two mirror-image variants. In the 1980s Kagan showed catalysts can amplify small handedness asymmetries, and in the 1990s Soai demonstrated a one-handed molecule can catalyse its own production, driving greater asymmetry. Soai's seminal 1995 paper on the Soai reaction was published in Nature.
A New England Journal of Medicine review traces systemic therapy for breast cancer since 2020, covering targeted therapies, antibody-drug conjugates and immunotherapy across biologic subtypes. CDK4/6 inhibitors remain foundational in hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative disease, trastuzumab deruxtecan is reshaping HER2-positive treatment, and immune checkpoint inhibitors have improved outcomes in triple-negative breast cancer. Unresolved issues include treatment sequencing, predictive biomarkers, circulating tumor DNA analysis and equitable access to high-cost therapies.
Conery et al. report in Nature the discovery and preclinical characterization of TRI-611, a selective, brain-penetrant molecular glue degrader that targets ALK fusion proteins in non-small-cell lung cancer, including tyrosine kinase inhibitor-resistant variants. The approach aims to address acquired resistance driven by ALK kinase domain mutations, TKI toxicity, and limited CNS penetration that hinders treatment of brain metastases. Further preclinical and clinical development would follow.
Why it matters: Molecular glue degrader offers a new way to overcome ALK TKI resistance and CNS penetration limits in NSCLC.
The American Association for Cancer Research's Cancer Progress Report 2026 finds that 71% of people with cancer in the United States now live at least five years after diagnosis, up from 49% in the late 1970s. Lung cancer five-year survival rose from 13% for those diagnosed between 1975 and 1979 to 29% between 2016 and 2022, while lymphoid leukaemia survival in children and adolescents up to 19 rose from 57% to 90%. Liver cancer survival has tripled to 22% since the mid-1990s, though gains remain uneven across malignancies.
A review published in Science, co-led by Dr. Dan Theodorescu of the University of Arizona Cancer Center and Dr. Dena B. Dubal of UC San Francisco, argues that X and Y chromosome genes shape disease risk, progression and treatment response in aging, cancer, neurological conditions, immunity and cardiometabolic disease, beyond the effects of sex hormones. The review links loss of the X chromosome in women to higher leukemia risk and loss of the Y in men to cancers, heart disease, severe infections and Alzheimer's disease. It grew out of the 2025 National Institute on Aging Workshop and calls for sex-aware clinical trial design and sex-tailored diagnostics and treatment.
Desharnais et al. show in Nature that across diverse mouse models, anti-PD-1 sensitivity tracks more closely with the diet-microbiome-metabolite ecosystem than with obesity-associated metabolic dysfunction. The findings point to body mass index as an incomplete proxy for host biology and suggest strategies to improve anti-PD-1 efficacy without inducing obesity.
Why it matters: Reframes BMI as an incomplete predictor of anti-PD-1 response, with implications for immunotherapy stratification.
Common-Sense Oncology and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer issued recommendations on reporting health-related quality of life in randomised clinical trials of adjuvant systemic therapy after locoregional cancer treatment. They argue that because many adjuvant therapies yield small gains in relapse-free or overall survival, side-effects and their effect on patient functioning and HRQOL must be reported to inform clinical decision making.
Why it matters: Guidance from two oncology bodies changes how HRQOL outcomes should be reported in adjuvant therapy trials.
García-Gómez et al. show that brain-seeding cancer cells enter an MXD4-dependent proliferative pause that restrains MYC and activates protective stress responses, allowing survival under stress before metastatic outgrowth. The pause represents a vulnerability that could be targeted to eradicate micrometastases before clinical relapse. The work appears in Cancer Cell.
Why it matters: Identifies a targetable survival mechanism in dormant brain metastases before relapse.
Grail's Galleri trial, which randomly assigned 140,000 UK residents to usual care plus multicancer detection testing or usual care alone, failed to meet its primary endpoint of reducing late-stage cancers. Results were presented at the ASCO scientific meeting in June 2026. The outcome sets back the aspirational goal of a single blood test able to identify most cancers.
Why it matters: Negative result from the largest multicancer detection trial affects a leading screening programme.
Merck & Co. and Moderna reported in August that their individualized mRNA cancer vaccine intismeran autogene (V940, mRNA-4157) plus Keytruda significantly improved recurrence-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival versus Keytruda alone in the phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial of 1,137 patients with resected cutaneous melanoma. Detailed data are being held for a future medical meeting, and analysts and academics say the result has revived interest in mRNA-based personalized cancer vaccines. Moderna's stock closed up 177% on the news.
Focal therapy for localized prostate cancer, still labeled experimental by the American Urological Association, is dividing urologic oncologists despite a U.K. study showing only 0.1% of patients died of prostate cancer 10 years after treatment, with outcomes comparable to surgery or radiation and fewer side effects. Only 1.3% of U.S. prostate cancer patients receive it, and many commercial insurers do not cover it; one patient paid about $17,000 out of pocket. Specialists are calling for randomized trials directly comparing focal therapies with standard of care before wider adoption.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 15 randomized trials with 7947 patients found that adding immune checkpoint inhibitors to radiotherapy improved overall survival (HR 0.865) and progression-free survival (HR 0.799) across cancers, with the clearest gains in non-small-cell lung cancer and cervical cancer. Adjuvant ICI timing showed stronger benefit (OS HR 0.742; PFS HR 0.638), but grade 3 or higher treatment-related and immune-related adverse events were more frequent (OR 1.227 and 2.217).
Mallard de La Varende et al. show that dysbiosis-associated tauro-conjugated bile acids drive non-response to immune checkpoint inhibition therapy in cancer, offering a mechanism for why antibiotics compromise ICI efficacy. The study, published in Cancer Cell, also identifies γ-glutamyl transferase (γGT) as a predictive biomarker for ICI response.