Articles in 2018

The safety of elective exogenous hormonal exposure among breast cancer survivors or women at high risk of having the disease has been debated for decades. Herein, the authors discuss the available data and present clinical recommendations regarding four areas of potential exogenous exposure to hormones: hormonal contraception; systemic hormone-replacement therapy; localized hormone-replacement therapy; and hormonal manipulation for fertility preservation or enhancement. Further research is needed to improve patient management in the future.

A call for action has been made for the establishment of a global fund for cancer control, but potential donors have not reacted yet, possibly because this task would require an annual expenditure of billions of dollars. Herein, I suggest a less onerous starting point: targeting childhood cancer in Africa guided by well-designed national cancer control plans.

Both multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukaemia are often preceded by defined precursor stages of neoplasia, which can aid efforts to unravel the mechanisms of disease progression. Herein, the authors review studies of the important roles of microenvironmental factors in promoting the development and progression of haematological cancers in these precursor conditions. Potential therapeutic strategies targeting the abnormal bone-marrow microenvironment are discussed.

Aberrant chromosomal architecture is one of the most common features of cancer and can often lead to chromosomal instability (CIN). In this Review, the authors describe the role of CIN in the development and progression of cancer and the potential to target the therapeutic vulnerabilities created by this process.