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The benefits and potential harms of mammography-based screening for breast cancer are often a matter of debate. Here, I discuss the promises and limitations of a recent study that tested an artificial intelligence-based tool for the detection of breast cancer in digital mammograms in a large, prospective screening setting.
The composition of the gut microbiota has emerged as a tumour-extrinsic factor that modulates response to immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), although the lack of consistency in microbiota signatures across studies has limited their value as reliable biomarkers. Herein, we discuss a recent study in which longitudinal microbiome profiling identified several taxa that are persistently enriched in patients with melanoma and a favourable response to ICIs.
Nucleic acid-based therapies offer an alternative to traditional cancer treatment modalities, with promising data beginning to emerge. In this Review, the authors describe the design and development of nucleic acid-based therapies administered virally and non-virally, including discussions of the advantages and disadvantage of each approach, as well as the role of patient-specific factors such as the tumour microenvironment, and consider the most promising future research directions.
By combining multiple MRI sequences, each providing different but complementary information about the tumour microenvironment (TME), multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) enables non-invasive assessment of the heterogeneous features of the TME components. The authors of this Review describe the role of mpMRI in the non-invasive characterization of the TME, presenting examples of its utility in cancer detection, staging and assessment of response to therapy, and considering future applications for personalized integrated diagnostics.
Expansion of the utilizable spectrum of light from the visible region to the near-infrared (NIR) window has greatly facilitated the clinical application of optical technologies for cancer imaging and phototherapy. However, use of light in the first NIR region (NIR-I) has important limitations, some of which might be overcome with emerging technologies utilizing NIR-II light. In this Review, the authors describe the current clinical experience with NIR-II-based cancer imaging and phototherapy, and discuss emerging NIR-II-based approaches that might further enhance patient outcomes. They also highlight challenges that will need to be addressed to translate NIR-II-based modalities from bench to bedside.
The benefit of combining antiangiogenic agents with immune-checkpoint inhibitors has been demonstrated in pivotal phase III trials across different cancer types, some with practice-changing results; however, other phase III trials have had negative results. The authors of this Perspective discuss the variable outcomes of these trials, considering factors that account for these differences and suggesting future initiatives for improving the outcomes in patients receiving these combinations.
