Carmen Phillips

Scientists have developed a method of rapidly measuring the levels of certain genetic mutations in brain tissue samples collected from patients during surgery. In a new study, researchers showed that the droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) method they developed could produce results in 15 minutes—the first time ddPCR has generated results so quickly. Their tool accurately measured the levels of tumor cells in dozens of brain tissue samples, they reported.

Scientists have developed a device that may help oncologists make better decisions about how to treat patients with cancer that hasn’t yet spread to other parts of their body. The device measures the “stickiness” of cancer cells in tumor samples to determine how likely the cells are to escape from the tumor and travel, or metastasize, to other organs. In experiments in mice, they showed that different levels of stickiness could predict if a cancer would metastasize.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the combination of two immunotherapy drugs for the initial treatment of some people with advanced colorectal cancer. The approval is for the use of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) for people whose tumors are classified as MSI-H or dMMR. About 5% of people with advanced colorectal cancer have MSI-H or dMMR tumors, which means the tumors are unable to properly repair certain types of DNA damage that can occur during cell division.