Trends in cancerPub Date : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-03DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.06.002
Leora Boussi, Sheng F Cai, Eytan M Stein
{"title":"Advances in menin inhibition in acute myeloid leukemia.","authors":"Leora Boussi, Sheng F Cai, Eytan M Stein","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.06.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.06.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Menin has emerged as a promising therapeutic target in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The menin-MLL1 interaction promotes an oncogenic transcriptional program that drives leukemogenesis in HOX-mediated acute leukemias, including KMT2A-rearranged (KMT2Ar), nucleophosmin 1-mutated (NPM1m), and NUP98-rearranged (NUP98r) AML, prompting development of menin inhibitors for treatment of these subtypes. Successes in clinical investigation have led to recent FDA approval of revumenib for KMT2Ar AML, with numerous trials examining menin inhibitors as monotherapy and in combination with other antileukemic drugs ongoing. Although menin inhibitors represent a major advancement in AML treatment, acquired resistance is an evolving barrier to efficacy. Here, we examine the biological rationale for menin inhibition and discuss the landscape of clinical trials and resistance mechanisms associated with menin inhibitors.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":"889-900"},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144565271","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 : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-06-03DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.05.003
Jessica L Chitty, Thomas R Cox
{"title":"The extracellular matrix in cancer: from understanding to targeting.","authors":"Jessica L Chitty, Thomas R Cox","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.05.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.05.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Significant advances in matrix biology research have enhanced our understanding of individual matrix components and extracellular matrix (ECM) signalling. The dysregulation of the ECM during the development of solid tumours is a critical area of investigation. Despite recent progress, further investigation into the role of the ECM in cancer progression and therapeutic targeting remains essential for improving outcomes. This study is especially relevant for ECM-rich cancers, such as pancreatic cancer, which is characterised by dense fibrosis that impacts all stages of tumour development, including initiation, progression, and chemoresistance. Currently, no matrix-targeting agents have achieved mainstream clinical implementation. Challenges in this field include insufficient integration of new technologies, and limited understanding of cross disciplinary influences and of the complex, multifunctional nature of the ECM. In this review, we highlight key areas of matrix biology research that are crucial for advancing cancer treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":"839-849"},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144226864","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 : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-25DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.003
Jiling Feng, Yu Zeng, Shengli Li
{"title":"Illuminating cancer therapy via cryptic antigens.","authors":"Jiling Feng, Yu Zeng, Shengli Li","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A recent study in Science by Ely et al. identifies immunogenic, cancer-restricted noncanonical HLA-I-bound peptides (ncHLAp) in pancreatic cancer. Using a translation-informed filtering strategy, the study uncovers cryptic antigens derived from unannotated ORFs and validate antigen-specific T cell receptors (TCRs) capable of targeting pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in preclinical models, offering new avenues for immunotherapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":"828-830"},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144718748","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 : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-08-05DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.004
Miaochun Xu, Yang Yu, Canhui Cao
{"title":"CGRP-mediated neural addiction in tumor dynamic remodeling.","authors":"Miaochun Xu, Yang Yu, Canhui Cao","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neuro-tumor crosstalk is reshaping our understanding of cancer. Increasing data demonstrate that calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a key neural driver of tumor growth, immune suppression, and cancer-associated symptoms, positioning CGRP-mediated neural addiction as a promising therapeutic target to disrupt tumor-nerve interactions and improve outcomes in patients with cancer.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":"834-838"},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144795640","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 : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.06.004
Magnus Haughey, Imran Noorani, Charles Swanton, Paul S Mischel, Benjamin Werner
{"title":"Extrachromosomal DNA: shaping the evolutionary dynamics of cancer.","authors":"Magnus Haughey, Imran Noorani, Charles Swanton, Paul S Mischel, Benjamin Werner","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.06.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.06.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cancers are complex, diverse, and elusive, with extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) recently emerging as a crucial player in driving the evolution of about 20% of all tumors. In this review we discuss open questions concerning the evolutionary role of ecDNA in tumor development, including tumorigenesis and metastatic seeding, the mutational landscape on ecDNA, the dynamic ecDNA genotype-phenotype map, the structural evolution of ecDNA, and how knowledge of tissue-specific ecDNA evolutionary paths can be leveraged to deliver more effective clinical treatment. Looking forward, evolutionary theoretical modeling will be instrumental in advancing new research in the field, and we explore how modeling has contributed to our understanding of the evolutionary principles governing ecDNA dynamics. Ultimately, these challenges must be tackled to improve clinical stratification and create tumor- and patient-specific ecDNA-based therapies.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":"901-916"},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12313332/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144609704","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 : 2025-09-01Epub Date: 2025-05-16DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.04.016
Norihiro Goto, Judith Agudo, Ömer H Yilmaz
{"title":"Early immune evasion in colorectal cancer: interplay between stem cells and the tumor microenvironment.","authors":"Norihiro Goto, Judith Agudo, Ömer H Yilmaz","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.04.016","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.04.016","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Most colorectal cancers (CRCs) are characterized by a low mutational burden and an immune-cold microenvironment, limiting the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapies. While advanced tumors exhibit diverse immune evasion mechanisms, emerging evidence suggests that aspects of immune escape arise much earlier, within precancerous lesions. In this review, we discuss how early driver mutations and epigenetic alterations contribute to the establishment of an immunosuppressive microenvironment in CRC. We also highlight the dynamic crosstalk between cancer cells, stromal niche cells, and immune cells driving immune evasion and liver metastasis. A deeper understanding of these early events may guide the development of more effective preventive and therapeutic strategies for CRC.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":"850-861"},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144094998","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":"Immune correlates and mechanisms of TIL therapy efficacy: current insights and knowledge gaps.","authors":"Blanca Navarro Rodrigo, Yaquelin Ortiz Miranda, Jesús Corria-Osorio, George Coukos, Alexandre Harari","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy has emerged as a transformative approach in cancer immunotherapy, particularly following the recent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of lifileucel for advanced melanoma. This review synthesizes current insights into the immune correlates and mechanisms underlying the efficacy of TIL therapy, highlighting the pivotal role of tumor immunogenicity, TIL functional states, and the tumor microenvironment (TME). Recent advances in single-cell profiling and biomarker discovery have enabled more precise patient selection and therapy optimization, while novel expansion protocols and engineered TILs are addressing resistance and broadening applicability to non-melanoma tumors. Collectively, these developments underscore the promise of next-generation TIL therapies to revolutionize treatment paradigms across a wider spectrum of solid cancers.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144970619","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 : 2025-08-29DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.006
Hale Tunbak, Özgen Deniz
{"title":"Reawakening retrotransposons: immune modulation in normal and malignant hematopoiesis.","authors":"Hale Tunbak, Özgen Deniz","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.07.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Retrotransposons are mobile repetitive elements that constitute around 43% of the human genome. Normally silenced through epigenetic mechanisms, retrotransposons can become reactivated in response to various stimuli, producing immunogenic DNA, RNA, and peptides that trigger innate and adaptive immune responses. In normal hematopoiesis, retrotransposon reactivation can drive inflammatory signaling responses, which support stem cell activity, influencing hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) regeneration. In hematological cancers, their reactivation can alter the tumor microenvironment and promote immune evasion. Here, we highlight the complex interactions between retrotransposons, hematopoiesis, and immune modulation. We also emphasize the therapeutic potential of targeting retrotransposons, while addressing critical knowledge gaps in retrotransposon-driven immune modulation across both health and disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144970577","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 : 2025-08-29DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.003
Tanya Jaiswal, Gagan Chhabra, Nihal Ahmad
{"title":"Polo-like kinases as immune modulators: a new frontier in cancer immunotherapy.","authors":"Tanya Jaiswal, Gagan Chhabra, Nihal Ahmad","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cancer immunotherapy has transformed treatment but faces challenges such as immune evasion and toxicity. Polo-like kinases (PLKs), frequently dysregulated in tumors, are emerging as key immune modulators. Combining PLK inhibition with immunotherapy may overcome resistance, enhance antitumor responses, and improve clinical outcomes, offering an optimally efficient strategy for cancer treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12403973/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144970614","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 : 2025-08-28DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.001
Tassilo L A Wachsmann, Lei S Qi
{"title":"CRISPR tools for T cells: targeting the genome, epigenome, and transcriptome.","authors":"Tassilo L A Wachsmann, Lei S Qi","doi":"10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2025.08.001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>T cell therapy has curative potential for many cancers. Despite impressive clinical efficacy in hematological malignancies, current T cell therapy still faces challenges related to sustaining responses, antigen escape, cytotoxicity, limited accessibility, and difficulties in treating solid tumors. The advent of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) technologies provides a promising solution to these challenges. CRISPR technologies have grown from merely tools for gene knockout to sophisticated tools that can engineer cells at various levels of the genome, epigenome, and transcriptome. In this review we discuss recent technological advancements and how their application to T cells has the potential to steer the next generation of cellular therapy. We highlight emerging applications and current technological limitations that future tool development aims to overcome.</p>","PeriodicalId":23336,"journal":{"name":"Trends in cancer","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.5,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12397615/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144970641","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}