AACR Journals: Editors’ Picks
Each month, the editors of AACR journals identify studies that expand the frontiers of innovative cancer research. Learn more about the cutting-edge science showcased this quarter.
August 2025
Cancer Discovery featured a study that used machine learning to analyze genome-wide cfDNA fragmentomes and detect brain cancer; a paper in Cancer Immunology Research highlighted the promise of KLK4-A2 T-cell receptors for prostate cancer immunotherapy and demonstrated that prostate-specific antigens can be effectively targeted using TCR gene transfer strategies; and an analysis in Cancer Prevention Research indicated that weight loss reverses the effects of aging and obesity on mammary tumor immunosuppression and progression.
September 2025
A study in Cancer Prevention Research evaluated the CervicalMethDx test, which integrates DNA methylation analysis and machine learning to improve early detection of high-grade cervical lesions; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics introduced HBS-101, a first-in-class inhibitor of midkine (MDK)—a multifunctional cytokine/growth factor that functions as an oncoprotein—for potential treatment of triple-negative breast cancer and other MDK-driven cancers; and Clinical Cancer Research published results from the phase 1b DeLLpro-300 study, which provided preliminary evidence for the safety and antitumor activity of tarlatamab in patients with neuroendocrine prostate cancer.
October 2025
A paper in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics showcased the development of small-molecule-drug conjugates, which fuse a drug payload with an engineered ligand to seek out tumor-associated receptors; Cancer Research published insights on a potential mechanistic basis for the apparent inverse relationship between Alzheimer’s disease and cancer; and Cancer Research Communications highlighted efforts to validate a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool, that predicts tumor tissue of origin in cancers of unknown primary and flags potential misdiagnoses for follow-up.