Research Advances

The CARTITUDE-4 trial shows that how well patients respond to bridging therapy — treatment given while waiting for CAR T-cell manufacturing — strongly affects how well cilta-cel (Carvykti) works in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Patients whose disease improved or stayed stable during this waiting period had much better survival and fewer serious side effects […]

Researchers at Northwestern Medicine have discovered why pancreatic cancer often resists immunotherapy: the tumor hides behind a “sugar coating” that tells the immune system not to attack. The study, published in Cancer Research in January 2026, also describes a new antibody designed to strip away this disguise. Normally, healthy cells use a sugar called sialic acid

Researchers have identified a small but powerful group of pancreatic cancer cells that are responsible for resistance to gemcitabine, the most commonly used chemotherapy for the disease. These cells, known as cancer stem cells, are marked by high levels of a protein called ARPC1B. Unlike other tumor cells, they can survive treatment and regenerate the

Pancreatic cancer is hard to treat because it is surrounded by dense supportive tissue that blocks chemotherapy. The most abundant cells in this tissue are cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), which strongly influence how tumors grow, spread, and resist treatment. Rather than being just passive barriers, CAFs actively shape the tumor environment. Researchers have found that CAFs

Researchers have uncovered that pancreatic cancer cells and nearby sensory nerves help each other grow stronger through a chemical signal called glutamate. Sensory nerves release glutamate, and pancreatic cancer cells have a receptor called GRIN2D that detects it. High levels of GRIN2D are linked to more advanced cancer. When cancer cells sense glutamate, they become more

A new study explains how pancreatic cancer becomes aggressive and spreads very early. Researchers found that the tumor can “reprogram” its surrounding environment, allowing cancer cells to invade nearby nerves and use them as pathways to spread through the body, a process known as perineural invasion. The study shows that pancreatic tumors depend on support

A new study explains why a small group of women with advanced breast cancer lived more than 20 years after receiving an experimental cancer vaccine. Researchers discovered that these long-term survivors shared a special immune “memory” marker called CD27, which helps the immune system remember and fight cancer for decades. This finding is unusual because

Researchers have found a way to consistently grow Helper T cells from stem cells in the lab, a breakthrough that could make advanced cancer therapies faster, cheaper, and more accessible. Helper T cells are important because they coordinate and strengthen the immune response, but until now they were very difficult to produce reliably. The team

Research have discovered how pancreatic cancer hides from the immune system. The researchers found that this “invisibility cloak” can be disabled, causing aggressive tumors in animal studies to shrink by as much as 94%. The study focused on MYC, a protein known to drive rapid cancer growth. While MYC’s role in making tumors grow was already

Researchers have identified a potential strategy to intervene earlier in pancreatic cancer by targeting the FGFR2 gene alongside EGFR. This “interception” approach aims to stop the disease before it becomes aggressive. Pancreatic cancer is currently the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States and is projected to rise to second by 2030.