Volume 15 Issue 9, September 2018

New treatment options for patients with resected stage III melanoma have been established with the publication of the results of four pivotal randomized clinical trials, resulting in three drug approvals, with a forth expected, all within only 4 years. Herein, we put these advances into context.

Developments in the treatment of advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma include novel locoregional interventions aiming to induce tumour necrosis and systemic treatments targeting the biological mechanisms of tumour progression, thus aiming to delay progression. These approaches fiercely battle to provide the best survival, but their lack of success to date suggests that they might be better tested as a complementary approach.

PapSEEK, a novel liquid-based cytology test, enabled the highly specific detection of endometrial and ovarian cancer in a retrospective study. Herein, I discuss potential applications of this tool, both for cancer screening of asymptomatic populations and for the early diagnosis of cancer in symptomatic women.

Evidence of the functional roles of non-coding RNAs in cancer is expanding, and the potential of these RNAs as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers is increasingly recognized. Herein, the authors review the recent developments in these areas and provide compendiums of circulating microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs that have promise as diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarkers.

Following the success of poly(ADP-ribose) PARP inhibitors in patients with BRCA1/2 mutations, considerable research interest has emerged in the discovery of alternative forms of synthetic lethality. In this Review, the authors summarize the potential of various novel forms of synthetic lethality to further improve the treatment of patients with cancer.

Liquid biopsy approaches hold great promise in early cancer diagnosis or minimal residual disease monitoring for cancer recurrence. Herein, the authors evaluate contemporary next-generation sequencing approaches to circulating tumour DNA detection in these contexts, with a focus on studies in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. They discuss the feasibility of introducing these strategies into the clinic, highlighting the technical and analytical challenges, as well as possible solutions.