Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO)

A team in China has studied the ability of a test to detect the human papillomavirus (HPV)—responsible for the vast majority of cervical cancers—in menstrual blood from more than 3,000 women. The results indicate that the test is comparable to current screening performed in medical offices. According to the researchers, “Using menstrual blood for HPV testing is practical and non-invasive, allowing women to collect samples at home and thus potentially offering a practical way to expand access to screening.” The study is published in The BMJ. 

A phase 3 clinical trial conducted in China tested 210 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer—the most common type—to see whether the time of day when immunotherapy and chemotherapy were administered influenced their effectiveness. The data indicate that, on average, those who received therapy after 3 p.m. did not see their cancer worsen for 5.4 months. In contrast, those who received it before that time did not see their cancer worsen for an average of 11.7 months, almost twice as long. Overall, response rates were 56.2% and 69.5%, respectively. The results, published in Nature Medicine, suggest that scheduling therapy early in the day may offer a simple and cost-free way to improve treatment efficacy.

The use of hormonal contraceptives is associated with a small increase in the risk of breast cancer—one additional case of cancer for every 7,752 women who use these drugs—according to a Swedish study. The risk varies depending on the type of hormones administered, and is slightly higher with the use of contraceptives containing desogestrel. The study, published in JAMA Oncology, analyses data from a national registry between 2006 and 2019, with more than two million women aged between 13 and 49.

Although most cancer cases are considered sporadic, some are defined as hereditary, as certain individuals carry variants in their DNA that increase their risk. A team in the United States has analysed the genetic information of more than 400,000 people and concluded that the proportion of those with known risk variants is slightly higher than 5%. This figure is higher than expected: nearly double for variants of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes and between 10 and 20 times higher for variants related to thyroid cancer. The results are published in the journal JAMA in research letter format.

For women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, the long-term risk of developing a second primary cancer is low, around 2–3 per cent higher than that of women in the general population. This is one of the conclusions of a study published by The BMJ, which analysed data from nearly half a million women diagnosed in England between 1993 and 2016 with early-stage invasive breast cancer who underwent surgery. During a follow-up period of up to 20 years, around 65,000 women developed a second primary cancer, but the absolute excess risk compared to the risks in the general population was small.

In the US, the incidence of colorectal cancer increased in people aged 45-49 years in the period 2019-2022, after advancing the screening age from 50 to 45 years, according to a study published in JAMA. The use of mailed faecal tests made it possible to reach people in this age group, without affecting screening rates in people over 50, says another paper published in the same journal.

Research involving more than 200 patients with depression, whose symptoms had not improved after NHS talk therapy shows that those who took part in eight group sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy saw their depressive symptoms reduced, compared with those who received treatment as usual. The study is published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

A team led by the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has shown in mice that a high-fat diet increases metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer, which has the worst prognosis. In addition, it has identified several of the mechanisms that would explain this, such as the activation of platelets and coagulation, which would help the tumour hide from the body's defences and prepare the so-called ‘pre-metastatic niche’. According to the researchers, who published the results in Nature Communications, ‘this mechanism could be extrapolated to other tumour types and other organs’. The results suggest that ‘dietary intervention, together with the control of platelet activity, may increase the efficiency of certain anti-tumour treatments’.

In women, high consumption of sugary drinks is associated with an increased risk of oral cavity cancer, according to a study published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. Among research participants who consumed one or more sugary drinks per day, the rate of these cancers was 5 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 2 cases per 100,000 among those who drank less than one per month. The analysis is based on data from more than 162,000 nurses followed for 30 years in the United States. According to the authors, further studies with larger samples, including men, are needed to validate these results.

An international team has found that aspirin is capable of reducing the appearance of metastasis in mice, by enabling the activation of T lymphocytes capable of recognising tumour cells. The research showed that several different mouse cancer models — including breast cancer, colon cancer and melanoma — treated with aspirin showed a lower rate of metastasis in other organs, such as the lungs and liver, compared to untreated mice. According to the authors, who publish the results in the journal Nature, ‘the finding paves the way for the use of more effective anti-metastatic immunotherapies’.