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Lidocaine—often used as a numbing agent for outpatient medical procedures—activates certain bitter taste receptors through two unique mechanisms that result in cancer cell death, according to researchers. Their findings pave the way for a clinical trial to test the addition of lidocaine to the standard of care therapy for patients with head and neck cancers. The local anesthetic drug has long been suggested to have beneficial effects in cancer patients, but it wasn't known how or why. The team found that lidocaine activates the bitter taste receptor T2R14, which is elevated in various cancer cells. When this receptor is activated,...

In an international, multicenter Phase II clinical trial led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 63.3% of patients with stage II–IV cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) saw their tumors nearly or completely disappear when treated with immunotherapy before surgery. The anti-PD1 therapy cemiplimab was well-tolerated, and the study met its primary endpoint with a pathologic complete response (pCR) rate of 50.6%, meaning no tumor cells were found at surgery. Another 12.7% of patients had a major pathological response (MPR), with less than 10% viable tumor found at surgery. The responses were confirmed by independent central pathologic review....

In the rich world, cancer therapy is expensive. In the developing world, it may not be available at all. Not only is cutting-edge technology in short supply, but so are things like electricity and medical personnel. The lack of necessary resources for basic healthcare is made obvious by the fact that, if diagnosed with cancer, a person in the developing world is more likely to die from it than a person in the developed world. To help alleviate this problem, cheap, uncomplicated, portable, and preferably non-surgical treatments that do not require electricity are needed. Now, a team of researchers from...