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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.

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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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