{"id":251867,"date":"2026-04-16T02:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251867\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T02:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:00:15","slug":"whats-new-in-cancer-research-top-3-abstracts-from-aacr-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251867\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s new in cancer research? Top 3 abstracts from AACR 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the\u00a02026\u00a0American Association for Cancer Research\u00a0(AACR)\u00a0<\/a>Annual Meeting,\u00a0UT MD Anderson\u00a0experts\u00a0will\u00a0showcase\u00a0their\u00a0cutting-edge\u00a0work that\u00a0impacts\u00a0patients across the\u00a0globe.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m\u00a0so proud of all the progress our researchers have made in discovery science and translational research that will be on display. These advancements will bring forth new therapies for our patients and advance our understanding of the biologic processes that\u00a0ultimately\u00a0drive\u00a0the disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For this year\u2019s meeting, our researchers\u00a0will present nearly 220\u00a0abstracts. Here,\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0highlight three\u00a0of them\u00a0that hope to lay the groundwork for future breakthrough discoveries.<\/p>\n

A new approach\u00a0to\u00a0immune checkpoint\u00a0inhibition\u00a0may\u00a0preserve quality of life for some patients with\u00a0oral lesions<\/p>\n

Approximately 5% of the general population have precancerous lesions in their mouth that can carry\u00a0up to a\u00a036% risk of progression to\u00a0oral\u00a0cancer<\/a>, explains\u00a0head and neck surgeon\u00a0Moran\u00a0Amit, M.D., Ph.D.\u00a0<\/a>While many patients undergo\u00a0surgery\u00a0<\/a>to remove these lesions,\u00a0the risk of recurrence after surgery can be as high as 40%.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor\u00a0these patients, the choice has always been between surgery that gradually erodes their ability to speak and swallow, or watchful waiting that leaves them in a state of uncertainty,\u201d says Amit.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
Prior research has found that treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab can reduce the size and the risk of progression of precancerous oral lesions. But when this treatment is delivered through an intravenous infusion, it can come with toxicities and\u00a0side\u00a0effects<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On April 21,\u00a0at the AACR Annual Meeting, Amit will present findings from a Phase 1 trial\u00a0that examined\u00a0injecting nivolumab directly into\u00a0the\u00a0lesions. This could\u00a0potentially\u00a0allow\u00a0some patients to avoid surgery and the\u00a0negative side effects that\u00a0can\u00a0come with intravenous infusions.\u00a0The implications could extend to other types of precancerous lesions.\u00a0
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\u201cIn this trial, we wanted\u00a0to\u00a0investigate whether\u00a0a simple, targeted injection of\u00a0immunotherapy\u00a0<\/a>directly into the lesion could\u00a0shrink it and retrain the immune system to fight it.\u00a0If successful,\u00a0we’re\u00a0not just treating a lesion;\u00a0we’re\u00a0giving patients back their voice,\u201d\u00a0says Amit.<\/p>\n

AI model may help predict immunotherapy response in\u00a0some patients with lung cancer\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the most significant challenges in treating metastatic\u00a0non-small cell lung cancer\u00a0<\/a>is that it is a\u00a0very\u00a0diverse disease, and clinicians do not have many reliable methods for predicting how patients will respond to treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rukhmini Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow\u00a0at UT MD Anderson, and colleagues\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0lab\u00a0of\u00a0Jia Wu, Ph.D.,<\/a>\u00a0are\u00a0harnessing\u00a0the power of artificial intelligence to\u00a0improve the ability to make these predictions and better inform key treatment decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their platform, Path-IO, works by\u00a0identifying\u00a0specific features within the\u00a0tumor microenvironment<\/a>\u00a0to understand how tumors and the surrounding tissues are organized. The model then combines this information with available imaging and clinical data to estimate\u00a0how likely a patient is to\u00a0benefit\u00a0from immunotherapy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Path-IO, as the name\u00a0indicates, is based on an emerging field known as\u00a0pathomics.\u00a0Pathomics\u00a0tools use AI\u00a0to visually recognize structures and patterns that humans may miss, but they are grounded in their known roles in immunotherapy response.\u00a0As a result, the predictions they make are explainable, compared to\u00a0so-called \u201cblack box\u201d AI tools, which is a significant distinction for their potential to reach the clinic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still some\u00a0work\u00a0to do before they\u2019re ready for the clinic, but\u00a0pathomics\u00a0platforms like Path-IO will hopefully\u00a0become extremely valuable tools to help clinicians make faster and more informed decisions for their patients,\u201d\u00a0says Bandyopadhyay.<\/p>\n

Bandyopadhyay will present the results\u00a0of this study on April 20.<\/p>\n

Novel treatment combination shows\u00a0promising\u00a0antitumor activity in some advanced tumors<\/p>\n

Timothy Yap, M.B.B.S., Ph.D.,<\/a>\u00a0will present the first clinical data on a novel combination treatment for advanced solid tumors with specific\u00a0genetic alterations.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n

Preclinical data showed significant potential for combining the WEE1 inhibitor\u202f\u00a0zedoresertb\u202fand the PKMYT1 inhibitor\u202flunresertib\u202ffor patients with\u00a0some genetic alterations.\u202fIn models, the two\u00a0worked well\u00a0together\u00a0\u202fbecause\u00a0of the way cancer cells respond to each of them as\u00a0a\u202fmonotherapy.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n

This effect pushes cells past their\u202fability to repair their own DNA,\u202finducing\u202fa type of cell death.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n

“Cancers with these specific\u00a0alterations represent\u00a0areas of unmet clinical need with no available standard-of-care targeted treatment options,\u201d explains\u202fYap. \u201cIf this combination is successful and well tolerated, it could be a significant\u202fmilestone,\u202fespecially in ovarian cancers where these\u00a0alterations\u00a0are more common.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yap will present the full data from the trial on April 19.<\/p>\n

Albert Koong, M.D., Ph.D., is chief scientific officer at UT MD Anderson.<\/p>\n

Learn more about UT MD Anderson\u00a0presentations\u00a0at AACR.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the\u00a02026\u00a0American Association for Cancer Research\u00a0(AACR)\u00a0Annual Meeting,\u00a0UT MD Anderson\u00a0experts\u00a0will\u00a0showcase\u00a0their\u00a0cutting-edge\u00a0work that\u00a0impacts\u00a0patients across the\u00a0globe. I\u2019m\u00a0so proud of all the progress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[86401,56,58,57,95337,95338,858],"class_list":{"0":"post-251867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-head-and-neck-cancer","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news","12":"tag-lung-cancer","13":"tag-ovarian-cancer","14":"tag-research"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}