Latest Research
All publications from the Cancer3.AI database, newest first.
SPINAL: study protocol for a multicenter non-inferiority trial evaluating reduce vertebral irradiation volumes in palliative radiotherapy for spinal bone metastases on analgesic efficacy.
Faivre J, et al
The SPINAL trial is a multicenter, prospective non-inferiority clinical study designed to determine whether reducing the irradiated vertebral volume in palliative radiotherapy for spinal bone metastases can maintain the same level of analgesic efficacy as standard, larger radiation fields. Spinal bone metastases are among the most common and debilitating complications of advanced cancer, causing severe pain that significantly impairs patients' quality of life and often requiring urgent palliative intervention. Conventional palliative radiotherapy typically encompasses entire vertebral segments, but this broad approach exposes surrounding healthy tissues—including the spinal cord, esophagus, and bowel—to potentially harmful radiation doses. By testing a reduced-volume irradiation strategy, the trial aims to show that targeted treatment is no less effective at relieving pain while potentially reducing toxicity and improving tolerability. Should the reduced-volume approach prove non-inferior, it could reshape standard palliative radiotherapy practice, offering patients safer and more precise treatment without sacrificing pain control.
BMC cancer
Source →Castleman disease arising from the pleura: a case report and literature review.
Yang H, et al
Castleman disease (CD) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder that typically arises in the mediastinum, abdomen, or head and neck, but primary involvement of the pleura is exceptionally uncommon and is frequently mistaken for other conditions such as solitary fibrous tumors or vascular neoplasms. Researchers report the case of a 58-year-old asymptomatic man in whom a left pleural mass was discovered incidentally during a routine physical examination, and who was ultimately diagnosed with pleural hyaline vascular unicentric Castleman disease after surgical resection and histopathological analysis. A companion literature review found that pleural unicentric CD predominantly affects young to middle-aged individuals with no clear gender predilection, and that approximately half of reported patients experience clinical symptoms — a notably high proportion for such a rare entity. Imaging studies and laboratory tests offer limited diagnostic utility for this condition, making histopathological and immunohistochemical examination following surgical removal the definitive diagnostic approach. The patient in this case recovered well after surgery, consistent with the overall favorable prognosis associated with surgical resection of unicentric Castleman disease. The authors emphasize that clinicians should include CD in the differential diagnosis of pleural masses to avoid misdiagnosis and ensure appropriate, timely management.
Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology
Source →Mature anterior mediastinal teratoma presenting with trichoptysis: a case report.
Aldakak MA, et al
This case report describes a rare presentation of a mature anterior mediastinal teratoma in a 45-year-old woman who sought medical attention after eight months of persistent dry cough. The diagnostic key was trichoptysis — the expectoration of yellowish hair-like strands — a highly unusual symptom indicating that the tumor had eroded into and communicated with the airway. Initial computed tomography imaging was misleading, suggesting a mediastinal abscess or malignancy due to surrounding inflammatory changes, which underscores the diagnostic challenge these tumors can pose. The patient underwent left posterolateral thoracotomy, enabling complete en bloc removal of the encapsulated mass together with a wedge resection of adherent lung tissue, and histopathology confirmed a mature, benign teratoma. This case highlights that clinicians should include mediastinal teratoma in the differential diagnosis of any mediastinal mass associated with chronic cough, particularly when trichoptysis — however rarely recalled by the patient — is part of the history, as complete surgical excision carries an excellent prognosis.
Journal of cardiothoracic surgery
Source →Predictive value of delta-radiomic features for the prognosis of patients with stage IA lung adenocarcinoma.
Zhong F, et al
A study published in Clinical Imaging investigated whether changes in CT scan imaging measurements over time — known as delta-radiomic features — could predict cancer recurrence in 647 patients diagnosed with early-stage (stage IA) lung adenocarcinoma. Researchers extracted hundreds of quantitative imaging features from both baseline and follow-up CT scans, calculated the interval changes between them, and applied statistical modeling to build an integrated prediction tool presented as a nomogram. The combined model, which incorporated clinical data alongside conventional radiomic and delta-radiomic features, achieved a strong predictive accuracy with a C-index of 0.8735 for recurrence-free survival in the validation cohort. Patients flagged as high-risk by the nomogram also showed significantly worse overall survival and lung cancer-specific survival, confirming the tool's broader prognostic value. These findings demonstrate that monitoring how a tumor's imaging characteristics evolve over time — rather than relying on a single scan — yields meaningful additional prognostic information for early-stage lung cancer patients. Clinicians may ultimately use such a nomogram to personalize surveillance schedules and treatment decisions for this patient population.
Clinical imaging
Source →Clinical trajectory of KRAS G12C-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a single-center cohort study in Japan.
Okazaki Y, et al
A retrospective single-center study from Kansai Medical University Hospital in Japan examined the clinical trajectory of patients with KRAS G12C-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a molecular subtype for which the targeted inhibitor sotorasib became available in Japan in 2022. Among 79 patients with KRAS-mutated NSCLC identified between 2019 and 2024, 23 (30%) harbored the G12C subtype, and 16 of these received systemic treatment, achieving a median progression-free survival of 7.5 months and median overall survival of 14.9 months. Despite disease progression occurring in 68% of treated patients, only 27% successfully transitioned to sotorasib as second-line therapy, revealing a critical gap in treatment continuity that may be limiting patient benefit from this targeted agent. Notably, patients experienced an average body weight loss of 7.5% in the period immediately preceding confirmed disease progression, suggesting weight change as a potential early marker of treatment failure. The authors conclude that systematic weight monitoring in clinical practice could facilitate earlier detection of progression and improve the proportion of patients who successfully access second-line targeted therapy.
Respiratory investigation
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