Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

The future of precision cancer therapy might be to try everything

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

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

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

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.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

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.

References

  1. Kornauth, C. et al. Cancer Discov. 12, 372–387 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Snijder, B. et al. Lancet Haematol. 4, e595–e606 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. O’Dwyer, P. J. et al. Nature Med. 29, 1349–1357 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Malani, D. et al. Cancer Discov. 12, 388–401 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Ranjan, T. et al. Cell Rep. Med. 4, 101025 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Ranjan, T. et al. Neurooncol Adv. 5, vdad055 (2023).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Manzano-Muñoz, A. et al. npj Precis. Oncol. 6, 90 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Mayoh, C. et al. Cancer Res. 83, 2716–2732 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Al-Aloosi, M. et al. Front. Oncol. 13, 1267650 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Gray, H. J. et al. npj Precis. Oncol. 7, 45 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Bangi, E. et al. iScience 24, 102212 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Bangi, E. et al. Sci. Adv. 5, eaav6528 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Tsai, L. L. et al. Ann. Surg. 277, e1143–e1149 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Peruzzi, P. et al. Sci. Transl. Med. 15, eadi0069 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • W1 professorship for "Central Metabolic Inflammation“

    Kiel University (CAU) and the University of Lübeck (UzL) are striving to increase the proportion of qualified female scientists in research and tea...

    Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein (DE)

    Universität Kiel - Medizinische Fakultät

  • W1 professorship for "Congenital and adaptive lymphocyte regulation"

    Kiel University (CAU) and the University of Lübeck (UzL) are striving to increase the proportion of qualified female scientists in research and tea...

    Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein (DE)

    Universität Kiel - Medizinische Fakultät

  • Post-doc

    The CANTHER lab, at Lille University in France, recruits a computational scientist (Post-doc or Engineer) for 2 years initial contract. The positio...

    Lille (Arrondissement), Nord (FR)

    INSERM UMR-S1277 and CNRS UMR9020

  • Tenure-Track/Tenured Faculty Positions

    Tenure-Track/Tenured Faculty Positions in the fields of energy and resources.

    Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

    School of Sustainable Energy and Resources at Nanjing University

  • Faculty Positions in Westlake University

    Founded in 2018, Westlake University is a new type of non-profit research-oriented university in Hangzhou, China, supported by public a...

    Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Westlake University

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links