New Cancer Research: HDAC Inhibitors, AI Radiation, Tumor Reprogramming, and Nanoparticles

Scientists are reporting multiple new approaches to cancer treatment, including a foundational study revealing how HDAC inhibitors can be harnessed against pancreatic cancer, an AI-guided radiation strategy for glioblastoma, and a prize-winning method that reprograms tumor cells to trigger antitumor immunity. The Salk Institute study, published June 25 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that blocking HDAC activity makes pancreatic cancer cells more vulnerable to DNA-damaging therapies.

Researchers at the Salk Institute examined the effects of entinostat, an investigational cancer drug that inhibits histone deacetylases (HDACs), in human and mouse pancreatic cancer cells. Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. The team found that HDACs help keep DNA repair genes active, allowing pancreatic tumors to fix DNA damage and survive. When HDAC activity was blocked with entinostat, DNA repair genes were turned down, and cancer cells became less capable of repairing DNA damage. By combining entinostat with DNA-damaging therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation, the researchers made these treatments significantly more effective in pancreatic cancer models. They also developed a nanoparticle-based delivery method that reduces side effects. The study was funded by federal research grants from the National Institutes of Health and private philanthropy.

Separately, a study published May 13 in Nature Communications tested a new way to plan radiation for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer that affects about 12,000 to 14,000 people in the United States each year. Researchers used artificial intelligence to predict where the tumor was most likely to come back and focused extra radiation on those high-risk spots, while still treating surrounding brain tissue. The study followed 20 patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma and found that the approach could be delivered safely in clinical practice and was associated with longer survival compared with a matched group of patients who received standard treatment. The approach also led to a higher rate of radiation-related changes in the brain, which in some cases required additional care. The next step is to test the approach in a larger, multi-center study through the NRG Oncology network.

In another development, Fábio Rosa received the 2026 BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation for his work toward developing a cancer immunotherapy that turns tumors into their own vaccines. His winning essay, published April 2 in Science, introduces an approach of in vivo immune cell reprogramming, converting tumor cells into antigen-presenting cells that trigger immune attacks from within. Rosa and his colleagues discovered that a trio of transcription factors reprograms ordinary cells into conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1), which are crucial to initiate anti-tumor immunity. In animal models, the approach reprogrammed tumor cells in place, increased T-cell infiltration, expanded tumor-reactive T cells, and led to complete tumor regression, especially when combined with existing checkpoint blockade immunotherapies. Rosa and his team at Asgard Therapeutics aim to submit a clinical trial application in 2027.

Also in brain cancer research, Michael Gomes, a PhD candidate at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform, has been awarded the 2026 South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Institutional Clinician Researcher Development Programme scholarship to advance research into new nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems for glioblastoma. His research compares three nanoparticle systems—liposomes, polymer-based particles, and polydopamine nanoparticles—to determine which most effectively delivers chemotherapy to brain tumors. The work also explores whether nanoparticles injected into the cerebrospinal fluid can use the glymphatic system to reach tumors more directly, potentially increasing drug concentrations at the tumor site while reducing toxic effects. Glioblastoma is a fast-growing cancer with poor outcomes; most patients survive only 12 to 18 months after diagnosis, and survival is often lower in South Africa and across Africa.