Latest Research
All publications from the Cancer3.AI database, newest first.
Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder with a Single Pancreatic Metastasis: A Case Report.
Calabrese B, et al
Researchers report a rare case of bladder cancer spreading to the pancreas in a 65-year-old man with a history of high-grade urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder. After previous treatments including tumor resection and BCG immunotherapy, a routine staging CT scan revealed a suspicious 1.5 cm nodule in the pancreatic body alongside a new bladder lesion. An endoscopic ultrasound-guided biopsy with immunohistochemical analysis — confirming the marker GATA3, characteristic of urothelial tumors — established that the pancreatic nodule was a metastasis from the bladder cancer rather than a new primary pancreatic tumor. The patient was subsequently directed toward systemic therapy combining immune checkpoint inhibitors with the antibody-drug conjugate Enfortumab Vedotin. This case highlights that bladder cancer can metastasize to unexpected locations such as the pancreas, and that precise biopsy techniques are essential to avoid misdiagnosis and ensure patients receive the most appropriate treatment.
Reports (MDPI)
Source →The relationship between asthma and glioma: a case-control study in a universal access healthcare system.
Bytnar JA, et al
A new study published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology examined whether a prior diagnosis of asthma is associated with a reduced risk of later developing a brain tumor called glioma, using data from a large U.S. military healthcare database spanning 1998 to 2014. Researchers compared over a thousand confirmed glioma patients with cancer-free controls matched by sex, race, age, and military status, leveraging the universal healthcare access of the military system to minimize biases common in previous research. The study found that individuals with a prior asthma diagnosis were 28% less likely to develop glioma overall, with the protective association being strongest for high-grade (most aggressive) gliomas and large tumors. Interestingly, no protective effect was observed for small tumors or when asthma was diagnosed within the 12 months before the glioma, suggesting that increased medical surveillance following an asthma diagnosis may lead to the incidental detection of small or early-stage brain tumors, which could mask the true inverse relationship. These findings support the hypothesis that immune activity associated with asthma may help suppress the development of aggressive brain tumors, while also highlighting how detection bias can complicate the interpretation of cancer epidemiology studies. Clinicians and researchers should consider these nuances when evaluating the complex interplay between allergic conditions and brain cancer risk.
Journal of neuro-oncology
Source →Preoperative prediction of 5-ALA fluorescence in gliomas: comparison of 7-Tesla magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging, contrast-enhancement on MRI, and positron emission tomography.
Huskic S, et al
Researchers investigated whether ultra-high-field 7-Tesla magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (7-T MRSI) could predict which glioma patients would show intraoperative fluorescence when given 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA), a dye used to guide brain tumor surgery. In a retrospective study of 43 adult patients with diffuse gliomas of varying WHO grades, several metabolic ratios measured by 7-T MRSI — including mI/tNAA, Gln/tCr, Glx/tCr, Gly/tCr, and GSH/tCr — were found to differ significantly between tumors that fluoresced and those that did not. These metabolic markers achieved high diagnostic accuracy (AUC values ranging from 0.79 to 0.94), performing comparably or even superiorly to established imaging methods such as contrast-enhanced MRI (AUC 0.84) and PET scanning (AUC 0.90). Crucially, in the subgroup of non-enhancing gliomas — where contrast MRI provides little useful information — MRSI markers such as Gly/tCr and Gln/tCr still demonstrated high predictive accuracy with AUC values of 0.90. These findings suggest that 7-T MRSI could serve as a valuable noninvasive preoperative tool to identify which patients are likely to benefit from 5-ALA fluorescence-guided surgery, potentially improving tumor resection outcomes especially in cases where conventional imaging falls short.
European radiology
Source →Successful Treatment of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Complicated by Myelodysplastic Syndrome Using Combined ALA-PDT and Narrow-Margin Excision: A Case Report.
Yang Y, et al
Researchers from China report a case study of a 77-year-old woman diagnosed with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), a common form of skin cancer, who faced additional treatment challenges due to a concurrent blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). MDS suppresses the immune system and increases bleeding risk, making standard cancer treatments such as wide surgical excision or radiation poorly tolerated. The clinical team successfully treated the patient using a combination of narrow-margin surgical excision and 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT), a light-based treatment that selectively destroys cancer cells with minimal damage to surrounding tissue. No cancer recurrence was observed over a six-month follow-up period, suggesting the combined approach was both safe and effective in this high-risk patient. This case highlights a potentially valuable treatment strategy for elderly or immunocompromised patients with cSCC who cannot tolerate more aggressive conventional therapies.
Clinical case reports
Source →Advantages of MelArray over Oncomine Focus Assay for Mutation Analysis in Melanoma.
Quacoe AE, et al
Researchers compared two next-generation sequencing (NGS) panels — the broad-spectrum Oncomine Focus Assay (OFA) and the melanoma-specific MelArray — in 100 patients with cutaneous melanoma to determine which tool better characterizes the genetic landscape of the disease. MelArray covers mutations in 190 melanoma-relevant genes and provides genome-wide copy number analysis, while OFA covers only 52 genes across multiple cancer types. The study found that BRAF mutations were the most common driver alterations across all cutaneous melanoma subtypes, and that tumor location, ulceration, and Breslow thickness correlated significantly with melanoma subtype. Critically, MelArray detected a substantially higher number of clinically relevant alterations in the TERT promoter and CDKN2A genes that were entirely missed by OFA. These findings suggest that melanoma-specific sequencing panels like MelArray enable more comprehensive molecular profiling and can better support personalized treatment decisions for melanoma patients.
Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania)
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