Thursday, July 23, 2026 Evidence-led medical research news
The First Cohort
Medical research, with the receipts

immunotherapy

7 stories tagged "immunotherapy"

Cancer

Whether a T Cell Keeps Killing Cancer or Quits Is Written in How Its Genome Folds

Exhausted CD8 T cells are why checkpoint drugs and CAR-T so often stall. New maps of the 3D genome show their fate is set by how the DNA is physically folded, and by CTCF, the protein that does the folding.

Cancer

One Protein Keeps Your T Cells in the Fight. The Same Protein Feeds Autoimmune Disease.

In mice, deleting the LEF1 gene collapsed the reserve T cells that sustain the fight against chronic infection and cancer. The same deletion protected against autoimmune diabetes.

Cancer

No Gene Editing, No Catheter Into the Skull: A Pediatric Brain-Cancer T-Cell Trial Reported One Complete Response in 33 Young Patients

Children with diffuse pontine glioma rarely live past a year. A first-in-human trial infused 33 young patients with pediatric brain tumors, including DIPG, with T cells trained on three tumor proteins, no genetic engineering, and reported one complete response and three survivors still alive years l

Cancer

Twenty Years of Nothing on Brain Cancer, and the Best New Lead Is a Vitamin Nobody Can Patent

A University of Calgary trial added high-dose niacin to standard glioblastoma treatment and reported 82% of 24 patients progression-free at six months. The design is single-arm and early, but the molecule is a cheap, unpatentable vitamin.

Cancer

Fibrolamellar Carcinoma Hides Immune Cells in Scar Tissue. A Drug Approved in 2008 Pulled Them Back Out.

Fibrolamellar carcinoma mostly kills young adults, and checkpoint immunotherapy bounces off it. Researchers found the tumor herds T cells into fibrous bands, and a drug shelved for stem-cell work since 2008 freed them in patient tissue. No human trial has started.

Cancer

The "Secret Reason" Cancer Drugs Stop Working Was Published in February

A Montreal team's antibody against the SLAMF6 brake on T cells made the rounds this week as a fresh discovery. The paper went up in February, the work is in mice, and the antibody has not been given to a person.

Drugs & FDA

The $200K Pediatric Diabetes Shot Just Won a Bigger Label. The Number That Won Isn't the One Families Will Ever See.

The FDA gave Tzield an accelerated nod for kids 8 to 17 newly diagnosed with Stage 3 type 1 diabetes. The C-peptide number won. The endpoints families would actually feel did not.