Latest Research
All publications from the Cancer3.AI database, newest first.
Metastatic Cholangiocarcinoma Presenting With Chronic Hip Pain: A Case Report.
Verbeke D, et al
A 59-year-old woman presented with chronic right hip pain that was initially missed by standard X-rays and CT scans, which returned negative results. Advanced MRI imaging ultimately revealed extensive bone marrow swelling, prompting elevated tumor marker testing that uncovered an intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma — a rare bile duct cancer — that had spread to the acetabulum, the socket of the hip joint. This case highlights an exceptionally rare pattern of cancer spread and underscores a critical diagnostic pitfall: bone metastases involving the inner marrow can be invisible on conventional imaging. Clinicians are urged to pursue advanced imaging and full-body cancer screening in any patient with persistent, treatment-resistant bone pain, even when initial scans appear normal and systemic symptoms are absent.
JBJS case connector
Source →Bone Cancers in the Philippines: Outcomes, Challenges, and Improvements.
Espiritu JR, et al
This publication examines the outcomes and challenges surrounding bone cancer diagnosis and treatment in the Philippines, a lower-middle-income country where access to specialized oncology care remains limited. The study investigates patient demographics, treatment patterns, and survival outcomes for individuals diagnosed with primary bone malignancies in the Filipino healthcare context. Findings highlight significant barriers including late-stage presentation, limited availability of limb-salvage surgery, and inadequate access to chemotherapy and multidisciplinary care. The research underscores how systemic healthcare inequities contribute to poorer prognoses compared to high-income countries, where bone cancer survival rates are considerably higher. These insights are intended to guide policymakers, oncologists, and healthcare administrators in the Philippines toward targeted improvements in early detection, infrastructure, and patient support systems.
JCO global oncology
Source →First-Line Sacituzumab Govitecan Plus Pembrolizumab and Carboplatin in Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Nonsquamous and Squamous Cohorts of the EVOKE-02 Study.
Gray JE, et al
Researchers evaluated a novel triple combination therapy — sacituzumab govitecan (SG), pembrolizumab, and carboplatin — as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) in the phase II EVOKE-02 trial. The study enrolled 54 patients with nonsquamous and 41 with squamous histology, all without prior systemic treatment and without actionable genetic mutations. The objective response rate reached 45.1% in nonsquamous and 39.0% in squamous patients, with median progression-free survival of approximately 8 months in both groups; notably, patients whose tumors expressed high levels of PD-L1 achieved a response rate of 66.7%. Safety monitoring led to a preplanned dose reduction of SG from 10 mg/kg to 7.5 mg/kg due to bone marrow suppression, and serious adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred in over 86% of participants. These results suggest that SG combined with pembrolizumab and carboplatin is an active and manageable first-line regimen for mNSCLC, warranting further investigation in larger trials.
Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research
Source →The diagnostic and therapeutic challenges of pulmonary epithelioid trophoblastic tumor: A case report and literature review.
Yang Z, et al
Researchers report a rare case of primary pulmonary epithelioid trophoblastic tumor (ETT) in a 31-year-old woman, contributing to a literature review of only 29 previously documented cases of this type worldwide. The patient was initially misdiagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy due to elevated beta-hCG hormone levels, and a small lung nodule was later suspected to be peripheral lung cancer before the correct diagnosis was established through surgery and tissue analysis. Video-assisted thoracoscopic resection confirmed ETT, and the patient subsequently underwent four cycles of EMA/EP combination chemotherapy. After three years of follow-up, she showed no signs of disease recurrence and maintained normal menstrual cycles, demonstrating successful fertility preservation. This case underscores the significant diagnostic complexity of pulmonary ETT and highlights the importance of tailored treatment strategies that balance cancer control with quality-of-life considerations such as reproductive health.
Medicine
Source →Evaluating the causal role of LEPR signaling in 16 cancers: A drug-target Mendelian randomization study.
Chen J, et al
A new study published in Medicine used a genetic approach called drug-target Mendelian randomization to investigate whether leptin receptor (LEPR) signaling plays a causal role in the risk of 16 different cancers. By using genetic variants that influence LEPR activity as natural proxies, researchers were able to avoid the confounding and reverse causality that typically plague observational studies. The key finding was that higher genetically predicted LEPR signaling was significantly associated with a reduced risk of pancreatic cancer, with an odds ratio of 0.91, a result that held up under rigorous statistical correction. Suggestive protective associations were also observed for lung squamous cell carcinoma, gastric cancer, and certain breast cancer subtypes, though these did not meet the threshold for statistical significance after correction. These findings suggest that LEPR signaling may have a tumor-suppressive role, particularly in pancreatic cancer, and have implications for the safety evaluation of therapies that target the leptin pathway in oncology. The authors note that the study was limited to European ancestry populations and used blood-derived genetic markers, which may affect how broadly the results can be applied.
Medicine
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