2023 in Review

This month we present a dedicated Focus issue, ‘2023 in Review’, that includes news, analyses and comments on the advances and challenges of the past year, together with highlights from the primary research articles published in Nature Cancer and elsewhere over the past 12 months.

See our December Editorial and associated Focus content.

Transmissible marine cancer evolution

Transmissible leukemia-like cancer in the marine species Cerastoderma edule and Mya arenaria is characterized by long-term tolerance as well as genomic instability.

See Bruzos et al. and Hart et al. and the accompanying News & Views article by Schönbichler & Bergthaler

Targeting the tumor–brain interface in glioblastoma

A designer peptide disrupts the interaction between EAG2 and Kvβ2, which are expressed at the tumor–brain interface and form a potassium channel; this disruption of their interaction reduces tumor growth in glioblastoma.

See Dong et al.

Targeting scar-like tissue in pancreatic cancer

An orally bioavailable pan-lysl oxidase inhibitor decreases chemotherapy-induced pancreatic tumor desmoplasia and stiffness, thereby enhancing tumor perfusion and therapy efficacy and reducing invasion and metastasis.

See Chitty et al.

Bone marrow niche heterogeneity in myeloproliferative neoplasms

JAK2 mutated hematopoietic stem cells occupy distinct bone marrow niches affecting cell growth and therapy response in myeloproliferative neoplasms.

See Grockowiak et al.

Opening a treatment path for ALK+ non–small-cell lung cancer

Poor response to immune checkpoint blockade in mouse models of ALK-rearranged non–small-cell lung cancer can be overcome by vaccination with an immunogenic ALK peptide. Together with the identification of immunogenic human ALK peptides, these findings open the path for future translational studies.

See Mota et al.

A multiomic view of T cells in primary and metastatic brain tumors

Profiling of T cell phenotypes in patient samples from primary brain tumors and brain metastases sheds light into the biology and therapeutic potential of the brain tumor microenvironment.

See Wischnewski et al.

Intercellular mitochondrial transfer in glioblastoma

Astrocyte mitochondria can be horizontally transferred to glioblastoma cells, leading to changes in mitochondrial respiration and metabolism that promote proliferation and tumor growth.

See Watson et al. and the accompanying News & Views article by Semenzato and Scorrano

The immunology of breast cancer histologic subtypes

This multispectral image shows a section of invasive ductal breast carcinoma, with infiltration of CD8+ T cells and macrophages in the tumor bed, and lymphoid aggregates in the stroma.

See Onkar et al.

Apoptotic cell death promotes metastasis of surviving neighbors

Dying tumor cells promote pro-metastatic signaling in surviving neighbor cells by releasing extracellular DNA–protein complexes enriched in RAGE ligands.

See Park et al.

Identifying master kinases in cancer with integrative multi-omics

A kinase–substrate–phosphosite network interactome identifies master kinases specific for glioblastoma subtypes, as potential therapeutic targets.

See Migliozzi et al.

Multiomics of metastatic breast cancer from the AURORA US Network

The AURORA US Metastasis Project presents a multiplatform resource of paired primary and metastatic breast cancers, to deepen insights into the molecular underpinnings of metastasis.

See Garcia-Recio et al.