The Persistent Poverty Initiative's Framework to Address Social and Economic Determinants of Cancer.

Social determinants of health are known drivers of a broad range of cancer outcomes. These determinants influence factors at the structural and institutional levels of society, which disproportionately affects those living in persistent poverty. Americans living in persistent poverty areas experience higher cancer incidence, delayed cancer diagnosis and treatment, and greater cancer morbidity and mortality.

Combining MCL-1 inhibition and CD37-directed chimeric antigen receptor T cells as an effective strategy to target T-cell lymphoma.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has not yet been realized for T-cell lymphomas (TCL), partially due to challenges in identifying tumor-specific antigens. We previously reported selective expression of CD37 on malignant T cells in a subset of TCL. Herein, we demonstrate CAR-37 T cells specifically target CD37-positive TCL in part by activating the intrinsic apoptotic pathway.

History of Thrombosis at High Altitude Associates With Increased Erythropoietin.

In Bolivian Aymara with erythrocytosis, elevated erythropoietin strongly associates with history of thrombosis. Hypoxia and iron deficiency predict elevated erythropoietin, but they do not have a direct relationship with thrombosis history. Source: Artwork by Nadia Gordeuk.

Therapeutic anti-cancer vaccines: a systematic review of prospective intervention trials for common hematological malignancies.

Background: This review comprehensively assesses all prospective trials on anti-cancer vaccines for common hematological malignancies by analyzing trial designs, endpoints, and whether these endpoints are met across these trials.

Methods: We included onco prospective clinical trials involving therapeutic anti-cancer vaccines for hematological malignancies published up to May 2025. We excluded retrospective cohort studies, case reports, non-research opinion publications, and studies not related to hematological malignancies.

Real-world characteristics and treatment patterns in essential thrombocythemia: a population-based cross-sectional study in Taiwan between 2020 and 2021.

Background: Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is a Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasm that is characterized by thrombocytosis and an elevated risk of thrombosis and hemorrhage. We aimed to ascertain the demographics, treatment patterns, and risk of recurrent thrombosis among patients with ET in Taiwan.

Objectives: To investigate the patient characteristics, proportion of treatment, age-specific treatment pattern, average daily dose, and risk of recurrence of thrombosis in patients with ET.

Retrotransposon methylation profiles and survival in Black women with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma.

Introduction: Retrotransposons (REs) constitute nearly half of the genome and include long terminal repeat (LTR) elements, Long INterspersed Elements (LINE), and Short INterspersed Elements (SINE). REs are typically silenced in somatic tissues via DNA methylation but can be reactivated through DNA hypomethylation, potentially impacting gene regulation. Here, we investigate genome-scale profiles of RE methylation in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) and associations with survival among Black women.

How Immunization Information Systems Inform Age-Based HPV Vaccination Recommendations in the United States: A Mixed-Methods Study.

: Immunization information systems (IISs) in the United States forecast vaccine due dates, which can inform when providers recommend vaccines to patients. IIS forecasting for HPV vaccination at 9 years, the minimum age of licensure, and when vaccination is likely most effective is not documented or well-understood. : We documented characteristics of HPV vaccination forecasts in jurisdictional IISs through Internet searches and requests to immunization program managers.

Neighborhood disorder and ovarian cancer survival in black women.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the fifth-leading cause of cancer mortality among women in the US. Black women experience significantly lower OC survival than White women. Evidence suggests that this disparity is not solely the result of barriers to healthcare access but may also be impacted by other factors, including neighborhood social characteristics.

The Future of Novel Antibody-drug Conjugates in Localized Urothelial Cancer.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have recently transformed the paradigm for metastatic urothelial carcinoma treatment. As these therapies demonstrate increasing efficacy and tolerability, attention is turning toward their use in earlier stages of disease. The current molecular targets for ADCs featured in large-scale trials have been Nectin-4 and TROP-2, leading to the development of enfortumab vedotin and sacituzumab govitecan; however, additional promising targets under investigation include HER2, FGFR3, EGFR, and CD-44.

Evaluating the Feasibility of Web-Monitoring Methodology for Measuring Exposure to Online Cancer Misinformation.

Understanding the impact of online cancer misinformation exposure on health outcomes is an area of growing concern, but few methods exist to objectively measure this exposure. The primary aim of this paper is to describe the lessons learned in using web-monitoring software to measure exposure to online cancer misinformation among patients with cancer. These lessons learned emerged from our experience conducting a prospective pilot study from October 2022 to August 2023 wherein we adopted commercially available web-monitoring software to capture cancer-related web content.

Real World Outcomes of Patients with Aggressive Lymphoma and Autoimmune Disease Treated with CART.

Autoimmune diseases (AIDs) have been shown to be a risk factor for the development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), with more than 15 million Americans diagnosed with AIDs between 2011 and 2022 [...

Population-Based Digital Health Interventions to Deliver at-Home COVID-19 Testing: SCALE-UP II Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Digital health interventions could be a scalable approach to delivering at-home COVID-19 testing.

Objective: SCALE-UP II aimed to investigate the effectiveness of 3 digital health interventions on the delivery of mailed at-home COVID-19 testing: SMS text messaging, automated chatbot, and patient navigation upon request.

Methods: The study was a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.

Tuning the Contractility and Deformation Modes of Active Actin-Based Assemblies In Vitro: From Two-Dimensional Active Networks to Liquid Crystal Drops.

Actin cytoskeleton-based materials are widely investigated as model cellular materials to elucidate physical mechanisms of cell mechanics, such as shape regulation and force production, as well as intriguing soft polymeric materials. In this method, we detail creating actin-based assemblies in vitro using purified protein for fluorescence microscopy studies. We polymerize long actin filaments in a sample chamber and use a polymer depletant to crowd filaments into a two-dimensional (2D)-entangled network against a surface passivated with a surfactant layer.

Prevalence of clinician-ordered genetic testing in rural and urban United States counties: An analysis of the 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey.

Objective: Rural residents face challenges to realizing guideline-concordant healthcare. Less is known about the role of rurality in achieving guideline-concordant genetic testing. To address this gap, we estimated the association between rural residence and two types of clinician-ordered genetic testing among individuals who had heard of genetic testing.

Nonchromatin regulatory functions of the histone variant H2A.B in SWI/SNF genomic deposition.

The replacement of canonical histones with their variant forms enables the dynamic and context-dependent regulation of the mammalian genome. Histone variants also play key roles in various pathological processes including malignancies. Among these, the aberrant expression of the testis-specific histone variant H2A.

Phase 2, Open-Label, Multicenter Study of Nelitolimod in Combination with Pembrolizumab in Anti-PD-1 Treatment-Naive Advanced Melanoma.

Purpose: Nelitolimod (previously SD-101) is a toll-like receptor 9 agonist. We assessed whether intratumoral nelitolimod plus pembrolizumab potentiates antitumor activity in patients with advanced melanoma who had not previously received anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) therapy.

Patients And Methods: Patients with advanced melanoma who were naive to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy received either nelitolimod 2 mg injected into 1-4 lesions or nelitolimod 8 mg injected weekly into a single lesion for 4 weekly doses, then every 3 weeks.

Clinical challenges and proposed solutions for patients with invasive lobular breast cancer.

Background: Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is the second most common type of breast cancer and is increasingly recognized as a separate entity from invasive breast cancer of no-special type. Here, we present the current standings and challenges of clinical ILC research and discuss possible solutions to address these challenges.

Design: European and US experts on ILC have summarized the recent developments, ongoing endeavors as well as the remaining challenges concerning the histopathological diagnosis, imaging and treatment of ILC.

Using Open-Source Large Language Models to Identify Access to Germline Genetic Testing in Veterans With Breast Cancer From Unstructured Text.

Purpose: The ability of large language models (LLMs) to identify access to germline genetic testing from unstructured text remains unknown. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) assessed access in Veterans with breast cancer by implementing and evaluating the performance of open-source, locally deployable LLMs (Llama 3 70B, Llama 3 8B, and Llama 2 70B) in identifying access from clinical/consult notes.

Methods: We identified a cohort of 1,201 Veterans diagnosed with breast cancer between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022, who received cancer care within the nationwide VA system and had clinical and/or consult notes available.

Integrating pulmonary and systemic transcriptomes to characterize lung injury after pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) is a potentially life-saving therapy but can lead to lung injury due to chemoradiation toxicity, infection, and immune dysregulationWe previously showed that bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) transcriptomes representing pulmonary inflammation and cellular injury can phenotype post-HCT lung injury and predict mortality. To test whether peripheral blood might be a suitable surrogate for BAL, we compared 210 paired BAL and blood transcriptomes obtained from 166 pediatric patients with HCT at 27 hospitals. BAL and blood RNA abundance showed minimal correlation at the level of individual genes, gene set enrichment scores, imputed cell fractions, and T and B cell receptor clonotypes.

Indoor tanning is associated with substance use behaviors among adolescents.

Introduction: Adolescents increase their skin cancer risk through exposure to ultraviolet radiation, tanning, and poor use of sun-safety practices. Past studies documented that adolescent indoor tanning is associated with substance use. However, these did not examine e-cigarette use as many were conducted prior to their widespread popularity nor were most studies focused on areas with high environmental risk for skin cancer.