As the hunt for effective cancer therapies intensifies, some scientists are turning back to look at old drugs in a new light. The anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine is one such drug that has been "repurposed" to fight cancer. Despite its effectiveness at blocking the resupply of needed resources to cancer cells, clinical trial results have been disappointing, in part because cancer cells eventually become resistant to the drug.

"As tumors grow very quickly, consume a lot of oxygen and their vascular growth can't necessarily keep pace, they often contain areas that are poorly supplied with oxygen," explains Johannes Karges. These areas, often in the center of the tumor, frequently survive treatment with conventional drugs, so that the tumor initially shrinks but doesn't disappear completely. This is because the therapeutic agents require oxygen to be effective.

A technological breakthrough by medical researchers at Tel Aviv University enabled the discovery of a cancer mechanism that prevents the immune system from attacking tumors. The researchers were surprised to find that reversing this mechanism stimulates the immune system to fight the cancer cells, even in types of cancer considered resistant to prevailing forms of immunotherapy. The breakthrough was led by Prof. Carmit Levy, Prof. Yaron Carmi, and PhD student Avishai Maliah from TAU's Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences. The paper was published in the leading journal Nature Communications.

Patients with late-stage cancer often have to endure multiple rounds of different types of treatment, which can cause unwanted side effects and may not always help.

In hopes of expanding the treatment options for those patients, MIT researchers have designed tiny particles that can be implanted at a tumor site, where they deliver two types of therapy: heat and chemotherapy.

Pharmaceutical scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have identified and characterised a unique multidomain enzyme capable of catalysing two distinct types of reactions, both vital for making drug molecules.

Natural products produced by living organisms such as plants, animals, and microorganisms, govern various survival and defence purposes. However, these compounds can be repurposed as drugs and medicines. Many well-known drugs, including ibuprofen and penicillin, are derived from these natural products.

Researchers at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University have identified a novel type of immune cell, called the stem-like CD4 T cell, that plays a pivotal role in anti-tumor immunity. The pre-clinical findings, published in Nature, highlight the potential to activate these cells to fight tumors more effectively, offering new hope for broader treatment success, particularly in patients with cancer that is unresponsive to current immunotherapies.

New research from biologists at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences reveals that mifepristone, a drug best known for its use for ending early pregnancies, might also extend lifespan. The findings could pave the way for anti-aging treatments.

Mifepristone, which is also used to treat Cushing's disease and certain cancers, has caught the attention of scientists exploring ways to promote longer, healthier lives.