Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-10-10DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.003
Di Huang, Jiahui Zhang, Xin Zeng, Yin Zhang, Erwei Song
{"title":"RNA vaccines for cancer: revolutionizing immunization strategies.","authors":"Di Huang, Jiahui Zhang, Xin Zeng, Yin Zhang, Erwei Song","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cancer vaccines have emerged as a promising strategy in cancer immunotherapy, capable of eliciting robust antitumor immune responses by targeting tumor-associated antigens or tumor-specific antigens. Among the various vaccine platforms, RNA-based vaccines have garnered substantial attention, especially in light of the success of mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review outlines the fundamental characteristics of different RNA vaccine modalities, summarizes recent clinical applications in cancer treatment, and highlights strategies aimed at improving their efficacy and safety. Furthermore, we discuss the current challenges facing RNA vaccine development and offer perspectives on future directions in this rapidly advancing field.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145275899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-10-03DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.013
Saheed Oluwasina Oseni, Yunfei Wang, Patrick Hwu
{"title":"Advancing human leukocyte antigen-based cancer immunotherapy: from personalized to broad-spectrum strategies for genetically heterogeneous populations.","authors":"Saheed Oluwasina Oseni, Yunfei Wang, Patrick Hwu","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.013","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-based immunotherapeutics, such as tebentafusp-tebn and afamitresgene autoleucel, have expanded the treatment options for HLA-A*02-positive patients with rare solid tumors such as uveal melanoma, synovial sarcoma, and myxoid liposarcoma. Unfortunately, many patients of European, Latino/Hispanic, African, Asian, and Native American ancestry who carry non-HLA-A*02 alleles remain largely ineligible for most current HLA-based immunotherapies. This comprehensive review introduces HLA allotype-driven cancer health disparities (HACHD) as an emerging research focus, and examines how past and current HLA-targeted immunotherapeutic strategies may have inadvertently contributed to cancer health disparities. We discuss several preclinical and clinical strategies, including the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI), to address HACHD. Last, we emphasize the urgent need for further research to better understand HLA allotype heterogeneity and its influence on tumor immunopeptidome-driven immune responses. We anticipate that these strategies will accelerate the development and implementation of both personalized and broad-spectrum HLA-based immunotherapies, and will ultimately improve cancer treatment across genetically heterogeneous patient populations worldwide.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145228675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-10-02DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.002
Guangsheng Pei, Yang Liu, Linghua Wang
{"title":"Spatially resolving cancer: from cell states to therapy.","authors":"Guangsheng Pei, Yang Liu, Linghua Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent advances in spatial multi-omics technologies and analytical methods are transforming our understanding of how cancer cells and their microenvironments interact to drive critical processes such as lineage plasticity, immune evasion, and therapeutic resistance. By linking cancer cell states, lineage plasticity, clonal dynamics, oncogenic pathways, and cellular interactions to their spatial context, these innovations provide deep biological insights and reveal clinically relevant molecular programs and spatial biomarkers. This review highlights key breakthroughs in spatial profiling and computational approaches, including integration with computational pathology, multimodal data, and machine learning to uncover important biological insights. We discuss challenges in spatial multimodal data integration and emerging clinical applications, and we propose a roadmap to accelerate clinical translation and advance precision oncology through spatially resolved, actionable, molecular insights.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145226076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reprogramming T cell stemness against cancer.","authors":"Jiaqi Wang, Ruochen Yan, Dingjiacheng Jia, Shujie Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stem-like CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells - characterized by high-level expression of the transcription factor TCF-1, and known as progenitor exhausted T (T<sub>pex</sub>) cells - have emerged as crucial mediators of durable antitumor immunity. These cells demonstrate unique self-renewal capacity, multipotency, and enhanced responsiveness to immune checkpoint blockade therapy. This review synthesizes current understanding of T<sub>pex</sub> cell biology, including their defining characteristics, tissue distribution, and functional importance in antitumor immunity. We focus particularly on innovative approaches to preserve and enhance T cell stemness through combination therapies, cytokine signal modulation, epigenetic regulation, tumor microenvironment modification, and microbiota-based interventions. The development of these next-generation immunotherapies targeting T cell stemness represents a transformative frontier in oncology, holding significant promise for improving therapeutic outcomes in cancer patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145226086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-09-30DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.001
Signe MacLennan, Marco A Marra
{"title":"How structural variation shapes the cancer epigenome.","authors":"Signe MacLennan, Marco A Marra","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It is widely recognized that cancer develops through a series of changes that modify the genomes of normal cells, enabling them to acquire new malignant properties. Epigenetic disruptions, which do not directly change the genetic sequence but rather influence how the genome is interpreted, have garnered significant attention as contributors to malignant transformation and progression. With the advent of new technologies to profile both the genome and epigenome of cancer cells simultaneously, the interplay between structural variation (SV) and epigenetic changes in malignancy is now an expanding field. In this review, we describe the key technological advances and highlight recent research exploring the relationship between SV and the epigenome in cancer.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145207768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-09-30DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.005
Pooja Mittal, Heinz-Josef Lenz
{"title":"Canonical and non-canonical intricacies of MCL-1 in cancer.","authors":"Pooja Mittal, Heinz-Josef Lenz","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.09.005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL-1), an antiapoptotic protein, belongs to the BCL-2 protein family and is an extensively studied anticancer target. MCL-1 inhibitors have been in development for decades but fall short on efficacy, toxicity, and side-effects. Recently, Brinkmann et al. shed light on the apoptosis-unrelated function of MCL-1 and its physiological role that could critically lead to MCL-1 inhibitor development.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145207796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-09-22DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.010
Laura Rosenberg, Nicolas Vabret
{"title":"Viral mimicry in cancer therapy.","authors":"Laura Rosenberg, Nicolas Vabret","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Viral mimicry is a cellular state in which the reactivation of silenced transposable elements (TEs) leads to the accumulation of immunogenic nucleic acids, triggering innate immune pathways that resemble responses mounted against viral pathogens. Although they were first characterized in the context of epigenetic therapies, growing evidence indicates that other cancer treatment modalities - including radiotherapy, chemotherapies, and targeted therapies - can also induce TE reactivation and viral mimicry responses in cancer cells. This review synthesizes the current knowledge on treatment-induced TE-mediated immune responses in cancer, highlighting therapeutic strategies, shared and distinct molecular mechanisms, and their broader implications for tumor-immune interactions and treatment outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145131998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-09-18DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.014
Katherine P Mueller, Jeremy M Grenier, Evan W Weber
{"title":"CAR T cell persistence in cancer.","authors":"Katherine P Mueller, Jeremy M Grenier, Evan W Weber","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.014","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapies are 'living drugs' in which T cells are genetically engineered to recognize and kill cancer cells. A major barrier to progress for CAR T targeting liquid and solid tumors is the poor persistence of these cells in vivo, which limits therapeutic efficacy. In this review, we summarize the field's current understanding of CAR T persistence, including clinical observations, patient correlatives and multiomics approaches, and emerging cell engineering and manufacturing strategies. We also propose a conceptual framework for CAR T persistence to guide interpretation of clinical data and the design of more potent and efficacious CAR T therapeutics.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12469819/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145092587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-09-17DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.008
Robin Demuynck, Faye Naessens, Dmitri V Krysko
{"title":"CX3CL1: a key switch of cell death immunogenicity.","authors":"Robin Demuynck, Faye Naessens, Dmitri V Krysko","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>CX3CL1 (fractalkine) is a unique chemokine with dual roles in cancer biology, capable of exerting both tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressive effects. Acting through its receptor CX3CR1, CX3CL1 facilitates immune evasion, angiogenesis, metastasis, and tumor cell survival and proliferation by recruiting immunosuppressive myeloid-derived suppressor cells. Conversely, it can enhance antitumor immunity by attracting cytotoxic T lymphocytes, natural killer cells, and dendritic cells into the tumor microenvironment. CX3CL1 has also been implicated in promoting immunogenic cell death-induced anticancer immune responses. However, excessive expression of CX3CL1 may paradoxically suppress immune activation, highlighting the importance of dose and context in its application. CX3CL1-based gene or mRNA therapies, particularly in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors, show promising potential for cancer treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145087613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Optimizing mitochondria function in immune cells: implications for cancer immunotherapy.","authors":"Huiyu Li, Wenyi Jin, Junhong Liu, Yundong Zhou, Xiaoli Shan, Yubiao Zhang, Yongliang Kou, Chunyan Deng, Cheng Jin, Junjie Kuang, Yui-Leung Lau, João Conde, Baozhen Huang, Queran Lin","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The tumor microenvironment (TME) imposes profound metabolic and functional constraints on immune cells, with mitochondrial dysfunction emerging as a pivotal driver of immunosuppression. While mitochondrial metabolism is well recognized for its role in energy production and cellular homeostasis, its dynamic regulation of immune cell activation, differentiation, and exhaustion within the TME remains underexplored. In this review we summarize insights into how TME stressors such as hypoxia, nutrient competition, and metabolic byproducts subvert mitochondrial dynamics, redox balance, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) signaling in T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and macrophages, thereby directly impairing their antitumor efficacy. We emphasize that the restoration of mitochondrial fitness in immune cells, achieved by targeting metabolites in the TME and mitochondrial quality control, represents a pivotal axis for adoptive cell therapies (ACTs) and TME reprogramming.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145081872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}