The future of precision cancer therapy might be to try everything

3 min read Original article ↗

Researchers are blasting patients’ cancer cells with dozens of drugs in the hope of finding the right treatment.

By

  1. Elie Dolgin

    1. Elie Dolgin is a science journalist in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Cartoon showing various pills, tablets and syringes flying towards a tumour cell with one syringe piercing it.

Illustration: Shira Inbar

The blood cancer had returned, and Kevin Sander was running out of treatment options. A stem-cell transplant would offer the best chance for long-term survival, but to qualify for the procedure he would first need to reduce the extent of his tumour — a seemingly insurmountable goal, because successive treatments had all failed to keep the disease in check.

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Nature 626, 470-473 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00392-2

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 15 February 2024: An earlier version of this feature stated that Philipp Staber’s lab uses a 386-well plate.

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