Cancer discoveryPub Date : 2026-10-07DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.cd-nw2026-0094
{"title":"Nobel Prize Spotlights Optogenetics’ Reach into Cancer","authors":"","doi":"10.1158/2159-8290.cd-nw2026-0094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.cd-nw2026-0094","url":null,"abstract":"Optogenetics, the Nobel-winning technology developed for neuroscience, is giving cancer researchers an unusually precise way to probe how tumors respond to signals from the nervous system. Scientists are also adapting optogenetics to build light-triggered cancer therapies, although significant technical barriers remain before such treatments can reach patients.","PeriodicalId":9430,"journal":{"name":"Cancer discovery","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":28.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149123632","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}
Cancer discoveryPub Date : 2026-10-01DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-26-0016
Qianyun Wu, Shuxian An, Fabrizia Gelardi, You Zhang, Lianghua Li, Wen Kong, Min Cao, Wenzhi Jia, Dongsheng Xu, Liangrong Wan, Gan Huang, Cheng Wang, Zhoumi Hu, Jiwei Huang, Wei Zhai, Jin Zhang, Arturo Chiti, Gang Huang, Jianjun Liu, Weijun Wei
{"title":"[18F]RCCB6 PET/CT in Diagnosing Clear-Cell Renal Cell Carcinomas: A Prospective Comparison Study with [18F]FDG PET/CT and Conventional Imaging.","authors":"Qianyun Wu, Shuxian An, Fabrizia Gelardi, You Zhang, Lianghua Li, Wen Kong, Min Cao, Wenzhi Jia, Dongsheng Xu, Liangrong Wan, Gan Huang, Cheng Wang, Zhoumi Hu, Jiwei Huang, Wei Zhai, Jin Zhang, Arturo Chiti, Gang Huang, Jianjun Liu, Weijun Wei","doi":"10.1158/2159-8290.CD-26-0016","DOIUrl":"10.1158/2159-8290.CD-26-0016","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This single-center prospective phase II trial evaluated [18F]RCCB6 (renal cell carcinoma B6) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT), a cluster of differentiation 70 (CD70)-targeting radiotracer, for detecting metastases in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). After screening 291 patients, 150 patients with histologically confirmed ccRCC or suspected kidney cancer underwent imaging. Among 1,221 assessable extrarenal lesions, [18F]RCCB6 PET/CT achieved 94.2% sensitivity, 80% specificity, 93.1% accuracy, and 98.3% positive predictive value. In a head-to-head comparison of 99 patients with 683 lesions, [18F]RCCB6 significantly outperformed 2-deoxy-2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-D-glucose ([18F]FDG) PET/CT, with higher diagnostic sensitivity (90.5% vs. 41.1%) and specificity (81.4% vs. 24.3%; both P < 0.001). Compared with conventional imaging across 748 lesions, [18F]RCCB6 PET/CT also demonstrated superior sensitivity (90.8% vs. 75.1%) and specificity (81.6% vs. 56.6%). [18F]RCCB6 uptake (maximum standardized uptake value) strongly correlated with CD70 expression (r = 0.843; P < 0.001). Moreover, the imaging findings changed clinical management in 58.7% of patients. [18F]RCCB6 PET/CT is a highly sensitive imaging modality for diagnosing ccRCC metastases and informing clinical decision-making.</p><p><strong>Significance: </strong>This phase II trial demonstrates that [18F]RCCB6 PET/CT significantly outperforms conventional imaging and [18F]FDG PET/CT in detecting metastatic ccRCC, with 94.2% sensitivity and strong correlation with CD70 expression, altering clinical management in 58.7% of patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":9430,"journal":{"name":"Cancer discovery","volume":" ","pages":"2008-2020"},"PeriodicalIF":29.5,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147867014","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}
Cancer discoveryPub Date : 2026-10-01DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-25-1735
JungHo Kong, Ingoo Lee, Dean Boecher, Akshat Singhal, Marcus R Kelly, Jimin Moon, Chang Ho Ahn, Chan-Young Ock, Dexter Pratt, Tannavee Kumar, Timothy J Sears, David Laub, Sarah Wright, Patrick Wall, Hannah Carter, Zhen Wang, Trey Ideker
{"title":"A Foundation Model of Cancer Genotype Enables Precise Predictions of Therapeutic Response.","authors":"JungHo Kong, Ingoo Lee, Dean Boecher, Akshat Singhal, Marcus R Kelly, Jimin Moon, Chang Ho Ahn, Chan-Young Ock, Dexter Pratt, Tannavee Kumar, Timothy J Sears, David Laub, Sarah Wright, Patrick Wall, Hannah Carter, Zhen Wang, Trey Ideker","doi":"10.1158/2159-8290.CD-25-1735","DOIUrl":"10.1158/2159-8290.CD-25-1735","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although genetic sequencing is routine in cancer care, translating a tumor's complex mutation profile into actionable treatment decisions remains a central challenge. MutationProjector is pretrained on a large corpus of genomic alterations across more than 30,000 tumors, integrated with extensive molecular knowledge. The resulting projection reveals a tumor's altered molecular pathways, facilitating model interpretation, and it accurately reconstructs held-out mutations, demonstrating model generalization. When applied to predict immunotherapy or chemotherapy resistance across multiple cancer types and cohorts, MutationProjector achieves or exceeds state-of-the-art performance in all contexts. It identifies unexpected biomarkers, including KMT2D mutation in immunotherapy sensitivity and joint alteration of SMARCA4 and STK11 in immunotherapy resistance. These results establish a unifying framework for connecting tumor genotypes to biological mechanisms and therapeutic outcomes.</p><p><strong>Significance: </strong>This work describes MutationProjector, a tumor genomic foundation model pretrained on more than 30,000 tumors. It maps mutations to biological states for diagnosis and treatment, achieving state-of-the-art performance in predicting therapy resistance and identifying biomarkers such as KMT2D (sensitivity) and SMARCA4/STK11 coalterations (resistance).</p>","PeriodicalId":9430,"journal":{"name":"Cancer discovery","volume":" ","pages":"2021-2036"},"PeriodicalIF":29.5,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13367315/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148027357","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}
Cancer discoveryPub Date : 2026-10-01DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-25-2001
Ahmed M Elhossiny, Padma Kadiyala, Jude O Okoye, Harrison L Hiraki, Megan C Procario, Thejaswini Giridharan, Hannah R Watkoske, Mariana Tannus Ruckert, Jiayue Wang, Brian D Griffith, Alexander W Bray, Jamie N Mills, Carlos E Espinoza, Jörg Zeller, Nicole Peterson, Filip Bednar, Yaqing Zhang, Arvind Rao, Costas A Lyssiotis, Julianne M Szczepanski, Jiaqi Shi, Atul Deshpande, Anirban Maitra, Elana J Fertig, Eileen S Carpenter, Timothy L Frankel, Marina Pasca di Magliano
{"title":"Asynchronous Evolution of Epithelium and Stroma Differentiates Precursor Lesions from Pancreatic Cancer.","authors":"Ahmed M Elhossiny, Padma Kadiyala, Jude O Okoye, Harrison L Hiraki, Megan C Procario, Thejaswini Giridharan, Hannah R Watkoske, Mariana Tannus Ruckert, Jiayue Wang, Brian D Griffith, Alexander W Bray, Jamie N Mills, Carlos E Espinoza, Jörg Zeller, Nicole Peterson, Filip Bednar, Yaqing Zhang, Arvind Rao, Costas A Lyssiotis, Julianne M Szczepanski, Jiaqi Shi, Atul Deshpande, Anirban Maitra, Elana J Fertig, Eileen S Carpenter, Timothy L Frankel, Marina Pasca di Magliano","doi":"10.1158/2159-8290.CD-25-2001","DOIUrl":"10.1158/2159-8290.CD-25-2001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) precedes pancreatic cancer, a deadly disease characterized by an extensive tumor microenvironment. How the microenvironment evolves during cancer progression is largely unknown, as PanINs are microscopic and nondiseased pancreas samples are exceedingly rare, while adjacent normal samples are disrupted by the presence of malignancy. Leveraging donor organs and spatial technologies, we mapped the evolution of PanIN to cancer. The PanIN epithelial component falls on a continuum with cancer, whereas the PanIN microenvironment is drastically distinct. Progression to cancer is accompanied by profound geographic reorganization of myeloid cells and lymphocytes and the formation of a cancer-specific fibroblast population characterized by high levels of smooth muscle actin, LRRC15, and the WNT signaling component LEF1. Together, our data show asynchronous evolution of epithelial and stromal components during pancreatic carcinogenesis. Lack of stromal reprogramming might explain why most PanINs do not progress to cancer. Compiled data available at https://www.pancreas-precancer-atlas.com/.</p><p><strong>Significance: </strong>Pancreatic cancer precursor lesions are widely prevalent in the population, but progression to invasive cancer is uncommon. Identifying barriers to cancer progression is critical for cancer interception. Our findings describe unique features of the precancer microenvironment that are likely responsible for keeping precursor lesions from progressing to malignancy.</p>","PeriodicalId":9430,"journal":{"name":"Cancer discovery","volume":" ","pages":"2060-2084"},"PeriodicalIF":29.5,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13628107/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147980072","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}
Cancer discoveryPub Date : 2026-10-01DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.cd-26-1661
Ying Liu, Tobias Janowitz
{"title":"Activity over Abundance: ADAMTSL4 Unlocks Latent TGFβ1 in Cancer Cachexia","authors":"Ying Liu, Tobias Janowitz","doi":"10.1158/2159-8290.cd-26-1661","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.cd-26-1661","url":null,"abstract":"Summary: Cancer cachexia is increasingly recognized as a coordinated, tumor-induced, unsustainable alteration in interorgan communication. Machado and colleagues identify a new molecular mechanism that promotes cachexia, in which tumor-secreted ADAMTSL4 drives tissue wasting by promoting local activation of latent TGFβ1, revealing post-secretory control of ligand activation as a potential therapeutic vulnerability in cancer cachexia. See related article by Machado et al., p. 2172","PeriodicalId":9430,"journal":{"name":"Cancer discovery","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":28.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149086349","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}
Cancer discoveryPub Date : 2026-10-01DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.cd-26-1667
Yang Bai,Albert S. Agustinus,Shira Yomtoubian,Cem Meydan,Dylan R. McNally,Liron Yoffe,Melissa J. Hubisz,Marvel Tranquille,Sneha Pramod,Christy Hong,Magdalena L. Plasilova,Aakanksha R. Kapoor,Arshdeep Singh,Henry Withers,Lukas E. Dow,Ashley M. Laughney,Bhavneet Bhinder,Olivier Elemento,Ari M. Melnick,Samuel F. Bakhoum,Vivek Mittal
{"title":"Correction: Epigenetic Regulation of Chromosomal Instability by EZH2 Methyltransferase","authors":"Yang Bai,Albert S. Agustinus,Shira Yomtoubian,Cem Meydan,Dylan R. McNally,Liron Yoffe,Melissa J. Hubisz,Marvel Tranquille,Sneha Pramod,Christy Hong,Magdalena L. Plasilova,Aakanksha R. Kapoor,Arshdeep Singh,Henry Withers,Lukas E. Dow,Ashley M. Laughney,Bhavneet Bhinder,Olivier Elemento,Ari M. Melnick,Samuel F. Bakhoum,Vivek Mittal","doi":"10.1158/2159-8290.cd-26-1667","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.cd-26-1667","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9430,"journal":{"name":"Cancer discovery","volume":"166 1","pages":"2198-2198"},"PeriodicalIF":28.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149088317","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}