A new cancer therapy developed by Purdue University researchers attacks tumors by tricking cancer cells into absorbing a snippet of RNA that naturally blocks cell division. As reported in Oncogene, tumors treated with the new therapy did not increase in size over the course of a 21-day study, while untreated tumors tripled in size over the same time period.

Cancer can begin almost anywhere in the human body. It is characterized by cells that divide uncontrollably and that may be able to ignore signals to die or stop dividing, and even evade the immune system.

For roughly 80% of breast cancer survivors, treatment doesn’t end with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Instead, for the next five to 10 years, doctors recommend that they take medication to block sex hormones, which can fuel tumor growth and spark recurrence.

The drugs are life-saving: They've been shown to cut risk of cancer recurrence by as much as half in patients with hormone receptor-positive tumors (HR+) - the most common form of breast cancer.

Cholesterol-lowering statins might protect patients with ulcerative colitis from developing and dying from colorectal cancer. Statin treatment was also associated with a lower risk of death regardless of cause in patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. This is according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in eClinicalMedicine.

Gamma delta T cells, a special type of cell in the immune system, are incredibly effective at recognizing and killing cancer cells. Cancer patients with higher levels of these T cells in their tumors tend to fare better than those with lower levels. But scientists have struggled to understand exactly how gamma delta T cells can recognize cancerous cells, and how new cancer therapies may be able to take advantage of these powerful immune cells.

Findings from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research reveal a new Australian drug that targets scar-like 'fibrotic' tissue within tumours shows promise for treating pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, one of the most aggressive forms of pancreatic cancer with a five-year survival rate of less than 10%.

The research in mouse models showed that when given in combination with chemotherapy, the drug PXS-5505 increased survival time by more than 35%, compared to chemotherapy treatment alone.

A new fund to fast-track patient access to potentially valuable new medicines may incentivise the pharmaceutical industry to develop high priced drugs for rare diseases with weak evidence on clinical benefits.

Health economics and policy academics from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, warn that if the NHS England Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF) is not implemented appropriately, it risks disincentivising the generation of essential evidence and could shift the financial burden from the pharmaceutical industry to the public finances.

More and more bacterial pathogens are developing resistance. There is an increasing risk that common drugs will no longer be effective against infectious diseases. That is why scientists around the world are searching for new effective substances. Researchers from the University of Bonn, the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Northeastern University in Boston (USA) and the company NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge (USA) now have discovered and deciphered the mode of action of a new antibiotic.