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In this Tools of the Trade article, Yaara Oren describes the development and use of the Watermelon system to simultaneously track the lineage, transcriptional profile and proliferative state of each cancer cell in a population, which enables the characterization of rare cycling persister cells.
This month, Nature Reviews Cancer launches Tools of the Trade articles, in which early career researchers can discuss the methods or techniques that they use to conduct their research.
Crist et al. set out to investigate what makes the colonization of skeletal muscle by disseminated tumour cells (DTCs) so rare and found that this niche enforces persistent oxidative stress on DTCs that cannot be overcome and therefore, restrains their proliferation.
In this Tools of the Trade article, Ana Luísa Correia describes the development and use of a tracker of dormant disseminated tumour cells to investigate the distribution and dynamics of dormant reservoirs within and across distant sites.
In this Tools of the Trade article, Christian Umkehrer describes the development and use of CaTCH, which enables therapy-naive cancer cell clones to be isolated and compared to their resistant counterparts.
Lv, Liu, Mo and colleagues demonstrate that in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells, gasdermin E transports the transcription factor YBX1 to the nucleus, where it promotes the expression of mucins, thereby providing tumour cells with a barrier against digestive enzymes.
In this Tools of the Trade article, Alejandro E. Mayorca-Guiliani describes the development and use of in situ decellularization, which allows native extracellular matrix to be preserved to address both tumour deconstruction and reassembly.
Guan, Polesso, Wang, et al. report that androgen receptor blockade, in addition to androgen deprivation therapy, enhances the response of T cells to anti-PD1 immune checkpoint inhibitors.
In this Tools of the Trade article, Eunhee Yi describes the development and use of a method called ecTag, which allows imaging and tracking of extrachromosomal DNA in live cancer cells.
North, Benbarche et al. engineered synthetic introns that were spliced specifically in cancer cells expressing the mutant spliceosome factor SF3B1. This led to expression of herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase and vulnerability of cancer cells to treatment with the antiviral drug ganciclovir.
Cancer survivors have been increasingly advocating for research into the long-term effects of their treatments. In this World View, Forster explains why cancer survivors must be included in every stage of the research process to ensure innovation in the field.
Nolan et al. used a mouse model of acute radiation exposure to reveal that radiotherapy can create a pro-metastatic lung microenvironment, an effect mediated by neutrophils.
Kobayashi et al. describe a role for silent mutations in creating functional KRAS-Q61K and develop a strategy that could potentially target this mutant as well as other RAS-Q61X mutations.
Complex therapies and multimodal interventions have become the gold standard approach for many of the most aggressive tumour types. However, there is a lack of models that enable the development and clinical translation of such treatment concepts. In this Comment, Saur and Schnieke present an argument for porcine cancer models filling this gap.
In this Journal Club, Abbas and Kurian discuss a study showing that using iron selenide quantum dots as biometric probes is superior to conventional organic fluorophores — with higher biocompatibility and quantum yield — in detecting tumour cell growth both in vitro and in vivo.
In this Journal Club, H. Mir and S. Singh discuss a study that established the significance of signalling via the G-protein-coupled receptors CXCR1 and CXCR2 in the extrusion of neutrophil extracellular traps, which can be targeted for cancer therapy.
mRNA vaccines have proven safe and effective in preventing serious illness and death during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Comment, Morris and Kopetz argue that these technologies offer a novel approach towards personalizing immune-based treatments for patients with cancer with the potential for immune activation beyond commonly utilized immunotherapies.
The African Esophageal Cancer Consortium is a self-organized consortium of more than 80 physicians and scientists working in eastern and southern African countries. This Comment highlights the role that international collaborations with regional partners at their centre play in expanding local capacities for research and care to address cancer disparities.
In this Journal Club, S. K. Singh and R. Singh discuss a study that used bioreactive, tumour microenvironment-modulating nanoparticles with doxorubicin to treat breast tumour xenograft-bearing mice, leading to reversal of immunosuppression and tumour shrinkage.
Asrir et al. show that tumour-associated high endothelial venues (TA-HEVs) in tumour-bearing mice are points of entry for lymphocytes, and increasing TA-HEVs frequency and maturation improves immune checkpoint blockade.
