(Press-News.org) Neuroblastoma is a cancer that affects the sympathetic nervous system of children. It is unusual among cancers because it shows a range of outcomes: from aggressive, potentially fatal progression to a unique phenomenon where the tumor spontaneously regresses even without treatment.
Identifying why some patients regress and others don’t could help thousands of patients.
A research group led by Nagoya University believes that the answer may lie in the “uncommitted” state of some neuroblastoma cells. In mice bred to have tumors that were presumed to regress, they discovered a population of “uncommitted" cells that expressed neuronal genes suggestive of a semi-differentiated state.
The findings surprised even the researchers as they suggested an entirely unknown mechanism in cancer development. “When the single-cell RNA-seq analysis first suggested the existence of uncommitted cells, I was honestly more skeptical than excited,” said Shoma Tsubota from Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine.
“Bioinformatics analyses often generate intriguing results, but experimental validation is critical,” he continued. “It was only after detecting uncommitted cells through RNA in situ hybridization that we began to feel confident in our hypothesis. That was a really gratifying moment for all of us.”
A further surprise followed, as when they compared their findings with human neuroblastoma datasets, they identified the same gene signatures specific to uncommitted cells in patients who had favorable outcomes.
Professor Kenji Kadomatsu, the Director of the Institute for Glyco-core Research, believes that the cells may help to identify ‘oncogenic potential’, which describes the tendency of cells to develop into aggressive cancer: “Although this remains speculative, we believe that uncommitted cells exhibit weaker oncogenic potential, possibly due to their intrinsic properties or the influence of their surrounding environment.”
This study sheds new light on the biological basis of spontaneous regression in neuroblastoma and paves the way for future research into early diagnosis, prognosis, and the development of novel therapeutic strategies targeting early tumor cell states. The team hopes that the development of methods to specifically label or isolate uncommitted cells could enable the discovery of early diagnostic markers and novel therapeutic targets.
This research was published in the journal Neuro-Oncology, the official journal of the Society for Neuro-Oncology. The study was performed in collaboration with the Australian Children’s Cancer Institute.
END
Some cancer cells just won’t commit: Why that might be good news for neuroblastoma cancer patients
2025-06-24
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Strategic choices behind accounting standards unveiled in new study
2025-06-24
New study explores why foreign firms listed in the U.S. choose between IFRS and U.S. GAAP. The research finds that firms strategically weigh the flexibility of financial reporting and the costs of compliance, rather than following the common standards in their listing jurisdiction. These insights help explain the real motivations behind financial disclosure decisions and offer guidance for regulators and investors alike.
A new study by Dr. Heylel-li Biton of the Hebrew University Business School sheds light on a long-standing question in global finance: Why do foreign firms listed in the United ...
New 3D modeling method quantifies light-shading impact of freshwater microalgae
2025-06-24
In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research have developed a novel three-dimensional modeling method that accurately quantifies how microalgae affect underwater light conditions—one of the most critical factors in aquatic ecosystem health.
Published in Water Research, the study addresses a longstanding challenge in hydrobiology: measuring the projected area—the light-blocking surface—of diverse microalgae species, many of which form colonies ...
USPSTF recommendation statement on screening for intimate partner violence and caregiver abuse of older or vulnerable adults
2025-06-24
Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that clinicians screen for intimate partner violence in women of reproductive age, including those who are pregnant and postpartum. The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for caregiver abuse and neglect in older or vulnerable adults. Intimate partner violence affects millions of U.S. residents across the lifespan and is often unrecognized. Abuse of older or vulnerable adults by a caregiver or someone else they may trust is common and can result in ...
E-cigarette and cannabis social media posts and adolescent substance use
2025-06-24
About The Study: In this survey study of California adolescents, exposure to e-cigarette or cannabis posts was associated with adolescent e-cigarette, cannabis, or dual use. Improvement of social media community guidelines and greater policy attention to co-use and marketing of e-cigarettes and cannabis may help prevent youth substance use.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Julia Vassey, PhD, email vassey@usc.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.17611)
Editor’s Note: Please ...
Breast cancer incidence trends in older US women by race, ethnicity, geography, and stage
2025-06-24
About The Study: In this population-based cross-sectional analysis of breast cancer incidence trends among older U.S. women, racial and ethnic as well as stage-specific patterns differed across age groups, highlighting the importance of disaggregating breast cancer incidence rates into age groups better aligned with screening guidelines. Future research is needed to directly examine the contribution of screening patterns to these trends and their impact on breast cancer mortality.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Erica J. Lee Argov, MPH, email ejl2152@cumc.columbia.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...
Charging devices with indoor lighting
2025-06-24
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2025 — When you think of solar panels, you usually picture giant cells mounted to face the sun. But what if “solar” cells could be charged using fluorescent lights?
Perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) have emerged as a lower-cost, higher-efficiency alternative to traditional silicon solar cells due to their material structure and physical flexibility. Their large power conversion efficiency rate (PCE), which is the amount of energy created from the amount of energy hitting the cell, makes PeSCs well suited to converting lower light sources into energy.
In APL Energy, by AIP Publishing, researchers from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan ...
Organ-chips may help unlock the mystery of ALS
2025-06-24
Using stem cells from patients with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Cedars-Sinai has created a lifelike model of the mysterious and fatal disease that could help identify a cause of the illness as well as effective treatments.
In a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell, investigators detail how they created “ALS on a chip” and the clues the specialized laboratory chip has already produced about nongenetic causes of the disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The work builds ...
E-cigarette and cannabis social media posts pose risks for teens, study finds
2025-06-24
Teens who see social media posts showing cannabis or e-cigarettes, including from friends and influencers, are more likely to later start using those substances or to report using them in the past month, according to surveys done by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Viewing such posts was linked to cannabis use, as well as dual use of cannabis and e-cigarettes (vapes). Dual use refers to youth who have used both cannabis and e-cigarettes at some point. The results were just published in JAMA Network Open.
The findings come amid a decline in youth e-cigarette use, reported in 2024 by the U.S. Food ...
Brains over bots: why toddlers still beat AI at learning language
2025-06-24
Even the smartest machines can’t match young minds at language learning. Researchers share new findings on how children stay ahead of AI - and why it matters.
If a human learned language at the same rate as ChatGPT, it would take them 92,000 years. While machines can crunch massive datasets at lightning speed, when it comes to acquiring natural language, children leave artificial intelligence in the dust.
A newly published framework in Trends in Cognitive Sciences by Professor Caroline Rowland of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, in collaboration with colleagues at the ESRC LuCiD Centre in the UK, presents a novel framework to explain how children ...
A small reaction space has a big impact on polymer chemistry
2025-06-24
Tokyo, Japan – Mimicking the incredible skill of mother nature is never easy, especially when trying to match the remarkable chemical processes that take place in living organisms. Living systems, like cells, can carry out chemical reactions in very small spaces, sometimes involving single molecules. For many years, researchers have attempted to emulate this to allow for the manufacturing of specialized chemical compounds, but with limited success.
However, new research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society highlights the development of a new tool that assists with controlling chemical reactions. ...