Cancer articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • News & Views |

    Cancer cells adjust the composition of their glycocalyx to increase its thickness and create a physical barrier that shields them from immune recognition and engagement.

    • Edward N. Schmidt
    •  & Matthew S. Macauley

  • News & Views |

    Lymphatic vessels within and near to tumours facilitate nanoparticle transport out of tumours, with ramifications in the design and implementation of next-generation clinical cancer nanomedicines.

    • Meghan J. O’Melia
    •  & Susan N. Thomas

  • Article |

    Nanoparticle retention inside tumours has been associated with lymphatic vessel collapse. It is now shown that nanoparticles exit from solid tumours through lymphatic vessels in or surrounding the tumour by a nanoparticle-size-dependent mechanism.

    • Luan N. M. Nguyen
    • , Zachary P. Lin
    •  & Warren C. W. Chan

  • News & Views |

    Locally confined epithelial malignancies undergo a phase transition from a solid-like to liquid-like state, a process called unjamming, where associated chronic intracellular strain causes nuclear envelope rupture, leading to the emergence of pro-metastatic traits due to cGAS–STING pathway activation.

    • Matthew Deyell
    •  & Samuel F. Bakhoum

  • News & Views |

    A bioengineered model incorporating a synthetic extracellular matrix recapitulates the lymphoid tumour microenvironment, making it a valuable tool for drug testing and designing personalized therapies.

    • Akhilesh K. Gaharwar
    •  & Irtisha Singh

  • News & Views |

    A synthetic matrix recapitulates fundamental biological interactions of pancreatic cancer to facilitate the culture of mouse and human pancreatic organoids.

    • Sohini Khan
    •  & Hervé Tiriac

  • News & Views |

    A nanosensor probe that combines a tumour-targeting peptide, a diagnostic reporter and an imaging contrast agent enables early diagnosis, precision imaging, disease stratification and downstream therapeutic response monitoring of metastatic cancer.

    • Matthew Bogyo

  • Review Article |

    This Review summarizes limitations in the current techniques used for patient-derived cancer organoid culture and highlights recent advancements and future opportunities for their standardization.

    • Bauer L. LeSavage
    • , Riley A. Suhar
    •  & Sarah C. Heilshorn

  • Article |

    Multimodal nanosensors have been developed to target and respond to hallmarks in the tumour microenvironment and provide both a non-invasive urinary monitoring tool and an on-demand positron emission tomography imaging agent to localize tumour metastasis and assess response to therapy.

    • Liangliang Hao
    • , Nazanin Rohani
    •  & Sangeeta N. Bhatia

  • Perspective |

    This Perspective discusses biological barriers that have limited clinical translation of cancer nanomedicines and elaborates on new directions for the field that capitalize on a deeper understanding of the nano–bio interface.

    • Irene de Lázaro
    •  & David J. Mooney

  • News & Views |

    The stiffness of the basement membrane is a determinant of the process of metastasis and patient survival. Netrin-4 is now shown to be a key regulator of the basement membrane stiffness.

    • Patrick Mehlen
    •  & Laurent Fattet

  • News & Views |

    An elaborate DNA origami tubular nanodevice encapsulating antigens and adjuvants protects mice from cancer through tumour-specific immunomodulation.

    • Hongjun Li
    •  & Zhen Gu

  • Article |

    The basement membrane stiffness is shown to be a more dominant determinant than pore size in regulating cancer cell invasion, metastasis formation and patient survival. This stiffness is now known to be affected by the ratio of netrin-4 to laminin, with more netrin-4 leading to softer basement membranes.

    • Raphael Reuten
    • , Sina Zendehroud
    •  & Janine T. Erler

  • News & Views |

    A dose threshold of one trillion nanoparticles in mice has been discovered and is shown to be crucial for overwhelming the nanoparticle uptake kinetics of liver Kupffer cells and for ensuring efficient nanoparticle delivery into solid tumours upon intravenous administration.

    • Twan Lammers

  • News & Views |

    In situ metabolic labelling and targeted modulation of dendritic cells has been achieved using a hydrogel system in combination with covalent capture of antigens and adjuvants, facilitating improved tumour-specific immune response.

    • Joshua M. Gammon
    •  & Christopher M. Jewell

  • Article |

    A DNA nanodevice vaccine has been developed and utilized to stimulate a tumour-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte response in vivo, leading to the inhibition of tumour growth as well as prevention of metastasis.

    • Shaoli Liu
    • , Qiao Jiang
    •  & Baoquan Ding

  • Article |

    Efficient nanoparticle delivery into tumours has been a challenge in the field. It is now shown that the efficiency can be improved substantially when the dose breaches a specific threshold.

    • Ben Ouyang
    • , Wilson Poon
    •  & Warren C. W. Chan

  • News & Views |

    Reprogramming normal cells into tumour precursors involves complex reconditioning of the tissue microenvironment. Cumulative integration of genetic drivers with extrinsic mechanical inputs is now shown to engage YAP/TAZ to rewire cell mechanics and initiate tumorigenic reprogramming.

    • Sayan Chakraborty
    •  & Wanjin Hong

  • Article |

    Dendritic cells concentrated in vivo within a hydrogel have been metabolically tagged with azido groups to enable tracking as well as delivery of antigens, adjuvants and cytokines, thereby facilitating targeted immunomodulation.

    • Hua Wang
    • , Miguel C. Sobral
    •  & David J. Mooney

  • Article |

    Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK)–Ras oncogenes have now been shown to reprogram normal primary human and mouse cells into tumour precursors by empowering cellular mechanotransduction, in a process requiring permissive extracellular-matrix rigidity and intracellular YAP/TAZ/Rac mechanical signalling sustained by activated oncogenes.

    • Tito Panciera
    • , Anna Citron
    •  & Stefano Piccolo

  • News & Views |

    Cancer cells have now been shown to lack rigidity-sensing due to alteration in cytoskeletal sensor proteins, but can be reversed from a transformed to a rigidity-dependent growth state by the sensor proteins, resulting in restoration of contractility and adhesion.

    • Edna C. Hardeman
    •  & Peter W. Gunning

  • News & Views |

    Aligned anisotropic organization of the extracellular matrix by fibroblasts has now been shown to depend on cell reorientation following collision, with the cell collision guidance dependent on the transcription factor, TFAP2C.

    • Paolo P. Provenzano

  • Article |

    The dominant mechanism of nanoparticle entry into solid tumours has now been shown to be an active trans-endothelial pathway rather than the currently established passive transport via inter-endothelial gaps.

    • Shrey Sindhwani
    • , Abdullah Muhammad Syed
    •  & Warren C. W. Chan

  • Article |

    Anticancer drugs such as Taxol can affect microtubule dynamics and organization in cells. Direct visualization of the action of such drugs has shown that they can trigger local and cooperative changes in microtubule lattice and induce formation of stable microtubule regions that promote rescues.

    • Ankit Rai
    • , Tianyang Liu
    •  & Anna Akhmanova

  • Article |

    A range of cancer cell types are shown to lack rigidity-sensing due to alteration in specific cytoskeletal sensor proteins and this sensing ability can be reversed from a transformed to a rigidity-dependent growth state by the sensor proteins, resulting in restoration of contractility and adhesion.

    • Bo Yang
    • , Haguy Wolfenson
    •  & Michael P. Sheetz

  • News & Views |

    A molecular pathway has been identified in the regulation of unjamming to overcome cancer cell migration and proliferation arrest leading to collective cell invasion.

    • René Marc Mège

  • Article |

    An anticancer agent, olsalazine, conjugated to a cell-penetrating peptide has been synthesized and shows the ability to self-assemble intracellularly by the tumour-associated enzyme furin, with the potential for tumour therapy and chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging in vivo.

    • Yue Yuan
    • , Jia Zhang
    •  & Jeff W. M. Bulte

  • Feature |

    Camille M. Le Gall, Jorieke Weiden, Loek J. Eggermont and Carl G. Figdor provide an overview of immunotherapeutics for cancer treatment that harness dendritic cells, their challenges in clinical use, and approaches employed to enhance their recruitment and activation to promote effective anti-tumour immunity.

    • Camille M. Le Gall
    • , Jorieke Weiden
    •  & Carl G. Figdor

  • Feature |

    Darrell Irvine provides an overview of the recent advances in materials science that have enabled the use of innovative natural and synthetic compounds in vaccine development capable of regulating the potency and safety of new vaccines progressing towards the clinic.

    • Darrell Irvine

  • Editorial |

    As the interaction of the immune system with the tumour microenvironment becomes increasingly understood, more evidence indicates how immunotherapy can be employed to better eliminate cancers.

  • Feature |

    Tumour heterogeneity and off-target toxicity are current challenges of cancer immunotherapy. Karine Dzhandzhugazyan, Per Guldberg and Alexei Kirkin discuss how epigenetic induction of tumour antigens in antigen-presenting cells may form the basis for multi-target therapies.

    • Karine N. Dzhandzhugazyan
    • , Per Guldberg
    •  & Alexei F. Kirkin

  • News & Views |

    A strategy to enhance antigen immunogenicity was developed by adsorption of polyethyleneimine on a mesoporous silica microrod vaccine for the presentation of tumour viruses and neoantigens, demonstrating their ability to drive anti-tumour immunity.

    • Cornelis J. M. Melief

  • News & Views |

    Fragments of DNA that are derived from dead tumour cells and shed into a patient's blood have been utilized as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of liver cancer.

    • Miljana Tanić
    •  & Stephan Beck

  • News & Views |

    Substrates with curved edges induce the reprogramming of cancer cells into a stem-cell-like phenotype.

    • Bettina Weigelin
    •  & Peter Friedl

  • Letter |

    Experiments with engineered hydrogels show that the geometry of the interface at the perimeter of tumour tissue can guide cancer cells towards a stem-cell-like state.

    • Junmin Lee
    • , Amr A. Abdeen
    •  & Kristopher A. Kilian

  • News & Views |

    A spool-and-ribbon cell-culture approach provides quick and easy access to the interior of engineered tumours for the analysis of cell responses to molecular gradients.

    • Peter DelNero
    •  & Claudia Fischbach

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