Press Releases

A specific genetic alteration, known as an ALK fusion, drives non-small cell lung cancer in some patients. This abnormality leads to excessive activity of the ALK protein, a key cancer promoter. These tumors can be treated with an ALK inhibitor - but the cancer cells quickly develop resistance to the drug. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have now shown in murine and human tumor cells that simultaneous treatment with ALK and SRC inhibitors improves the therapy response of the cancer cells and delays the development of resistance. The combination therapy, which strongly interferes with the protein composition of cancer cells, could improve clinical outcomes in the treatment of certain forms of non-small cell lung cancer.

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The European Research Council (ERC) supports visionary, ground-breaking research projects with its "Advanced Grants". This year, the Council awarded the prestigious funding to two researchers at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ): Neuroscientist Hannah Monyer, DKFZ and Heidelberg University Hospital, wants to find new explanations for the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Neurologist Michael Platten, DKFZ and University Medical Center Mannheim, will use the ERC funding to develop and test personalized cellular immunotherapies against malignant brain tumors.

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In the medicine of the future, tiny robots will navigate independently through tissue and medical instruments will indicate their position inside the body during surgery. Both require doctors to be able to localize and control the devices precisely and in real time. Until now, there has been no suitable method for this. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now described a signaling method based on an oscillating magnet that can significantly improve such medical applications.

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Many cancer patients suffer not only from health problems, but experience loss of income and out-of-pocket expenditures for medical services. This is true even in European countries with high incomes and comprehensive health insurance systems. This problem has been largely underestimated in the past and little systematic research has been carried out. The Organization of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) is now presenting consensus recommendations to guide future research into the socio-economic consequences of cancer.

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Making a personalised T cell therapy for cancer patients currently takes at least six months; scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University Medical Center Mannheim have shown that the laborious first step of identifying tumor-reactive T cell receptors for patients can be replaced with a machine learning classifier that halves this time.

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How well do the algorithms used in the AI-supported analysis of medical images perform their respective tasks? This depends to a large extent on the metrics used to evaluate their performance. An international consortium led by scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg has compiled the knowledge available worldwide on the specific strengths, weaknesses and limitations of the various validation metrics. With "Metrics Reloaded", the researchers are now providing a widely available online tool that supports users in selecting the most suitable algorithm for their task.

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"GLO", glioblastoma-like organoids grown in the laboratory from human stem cells, are a suitable model for investigating the correlation between genetic mutations and molecular subtypes in glioblastoma. This was published by scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). When investigating the GLOs, they discovered that glioblastoma development is characterised by a reprogrammed lipid metabolism. This could be the starting point for developing new drugs.

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The constant remodeling of the organs of the female reproductive tract during the reproductive cycle leads to fibrosis and chronic inflammation over the years. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now uncovered these unexpected long-term consequences of female reproductive function in mice. The results have been published in the scientific journal CELL.

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Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Medical Faculty Mannheim of the Heidelberg University investigated in mice how spreading tumor cells behave at the site of metastasis: Some tumor cells immediately start to form metastases. Others leave the blood vessel and may then enter a long period of dormancy. What determines which path the cancer cells take is their epigenetic status. This was also confirmed in experiments with human tumor cells. The results of the study could pave the way for novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

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A precursor of cholesterol can protect cancer cells from a form of cell death known as ferroptosis. Scientists of the University of Würzburg, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and the Stem Cell Institute HI-STEM* published this finding in the journal Nature. The results opens up exciting prospects for further improving the treatment of cancer and other diseases associated with oxidative stress and ferroptosis.

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