Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, resulting in a five-year survival rate of roughly 12%. Approximately half of patients develop metastases shortly after diagnosis, but the biological mechanisms driving spread to specific organs are not fully understood.   To provide insights, Linghua Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Anirban Maitra, M.B.B.S., and colleagues generated a comprehensive spatial atlas using 55 samples of primary tumors and metastases collected from 13 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer undergoing rapid autopsy. The researchers focused...

Lung cancer is often diagnosed at late stages, making treatment challenging. To understand its early development, researchers led by Bo Zhu, Ph.D., Jia Wu, Ph.D., Alexandre Reuben, Ph.D., and Jianjun Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., used imaging mass cytometry to map the spatial tumor microenvironment across 114 lung cancers and precancers. They found a gradual shift from innate to adaptive immune responses as lesions progressed to more invasive cancer. High levels of TIM-3, an immune checkpoint marker, were found in precancers but dropped off in more...

The latest treatment for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) – an aggressive and incurable B-cell lymphoma – includes Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors such as acalabrutinib. Acalabrutinib is a second-generation BTK inhibitor with high specificity. In the Phase III international ECHO trial, researchers led by Michael Wang, M.D., evaluated adding either acalabrutinib or placebo to the standard of care for 598 patients with MCL. At a median follow-up of 44.9 months, the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 66.4 months...

A newly published study by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch offers fresh insights into a critical public health concern: why Americans live shorter lives compared to people in other wealthy nations.   The study was led by Dr. Neil Mehta, Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean of Research at the School of Public and Population Health, and Dr. Octavio Bramajo, a postdoctoral fellow at UTMB’s Sealy Center on Aging. Their research investigates...

A novel cell therapy approach using cord blood-derived natural killer (NK) cells pre-complexed with AFM13, or acimtamig, a CD30/CD16A bispecific antibody, was safe and generated strong response rates for patients with refractory CD30-positive lymphomas.   Results from the Phase I trial demonstrated an overall response rate of 92.9% and a complete response of 66.7% in 42 heavily pretreated patients. These findings suggest this unique cell therapy approach has promise for specific patients with lymphoma, but it may...

New research out of the University of Texas Medical Branch reveals findings that drug candidate NITD-688 utilized a unique way to stop dengue, a potentially life-threatening infection spread by mosquitos.   Dengue, caused by the dengue virus, presents a significant public health challenge with limited effective treatments. Primarily transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes, the virus can cause diseases ranging from mild flu-like illness to life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome....

Surgery may not be the best next course of treatment for patients with early-stage breast cancer who had a complete response to neoadjuvant (pre-surgical) chemotherapy and standard radiation treatment.   Five-year results from the Phase II trial revealed that breast cancer still had not returned in patients who had a pathologic complete response (pCR) after chemotherapy and radiation, without surgery. After a median follow-up of 55.4 months, each of the 31 patients with a pCR remained disease...

Houston Methodist recently announced that it has awarded $10 million in community grants to 30 local nonprofit organizations through the Community Benefits Grant Program. In 2025, the agencies receiving grant support will help more than 59,000 individuals in the Greater Houston area gain access to critical health care services.   The Community Benefits Grant Program focuses on increasing health care access to primary care and mental health care services for uninsured and underinsured individuals through financial support...

Texas Children’s Hospital and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a transformational collaboration dedicated solely to pediatric cancer care. Approved by the Texas Children’s Board of Trustees and the UT System Board of Regents, this new, first-of-its-kind joint venture will unite the nation’s largest comprehensive pediatric system and a top pediatric cancer program with the nation’s leading comprehensive cancer center. The collaboration has a single mission: to end childhood cancer.   “The scope and scale of our combined...