(Press-News.org) Researchers in China have developed a powerful machine learning model that can help determine which patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are likely to respond well to radiotherapy—a common treatment for this type of cancer. The study, conducted by scientists at Zhujiang Hospital and Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University, introduces a predictive tool known as the NPC-RSS (Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Radiotherapy Sensitivity Score).
Using transcriptomic data and a rigorous machine learning framework that evaluated 113 algorithm combinations, the team identified an 18-gene signature capable of predicting a patient's radiosensitivity. The model showed impressive accuracy in both internal datasets and external validation sets.
“Radiotherapy is the primary treatment for NPC, but up to 30% of patients relapse due to radiation resistance,” said lead author Dr. Jian Zhang. “Our model helps solve this problem by identifying patients who are most likely to benefit from radiotherapy, allowing for more tailored and effective treatment strategies.”
The model’s core genes—such as SMARCA2, DMC1, and CD9—were found to influence tumor immune infiltration and key signaling pathways like Wnt/β-catenin and JAK-STAT. Notably, the radiosensitive group showed higher levels of immune cell activity, suggesting an intimate connection between radiation response and immune dynamics.
The predictive power of the NPC-RSS was confirmed using cell lines and single-cell sequencing, showing that radiosensitive tumors have richer immune environments compared to resistant ones. According to co-author Dr. Hui Meng, “Our findings suggest that integrating gene scores with immune profiles could be a game-changer in NPC care.”
The team believes the model could become a clinical tool for guiding treatment decisions, minimizing unnecessary radiation exposure, and optimizing therapeutic outcomes. They are now working to expand their sample size and collaborate with international partners to further validate and refine the model.
END
Machine learning model predicts which patients with nasopharyngeal cancer respond to radiation
2025-07-30
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
GenAI models extract pathological features for lung adenocarcinoma grading and prognosis
2025-07-30
Lung adenocarcinoma remains one of the most challenging cancers to diagnose accurately, with pathologists spending countless hours examining tissue samples under microscopes to determine cancer grades and predict patient outcomes. A new study published in the International Journal of Surgery demonstrates how generative artificial intelligence could fundamentally change this process, offering both speed and precision that rivals human expertise.
Dr. Anqi Lin and his research team at Southern Medical University's ...
New research further investigates safety of general anesthesia in infants
2025-07-30
New research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) finds that prolonged and/or repeated exposure to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) anesthetic agents (sevoflurane, propofol) for infants in the first two months of life resulted in an accelerated maturation of brain electrical activity patterns evoked by visual stimuli when recorded at 2-5 months of age, compared to infants who did not have early general anesthesia exposure. These findings may suggest the use of non-GABA-active anesthetics for the newborn ...
We might inhale 68,000 lung-penetrating microplastics daily in our homes and cars – 100x previous estimates
2025-07-30
New measurements of fine microplastic particles suspended in the air in homes and cars suggest that humans may be inhaling far greater amounts of lung-penetrating microplastics than previously thought. Nadiia Yakovenko and colleagues at the Université de Toulouse, France, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on July 30, 2025.
Prior research has detected tiny fragments of plastic known as microplastics suspended in the air across a wide variety of outdoor and indoor environments worldwide. The ubiquity of these airborne pollutants has raised concerns about their potential health ...
Indian adults who move to cities are significantly more likely to become obese than their rural counterparts - and the longer they stay, the greater the risk
2025-07-30
Indian adults who move to cities are significantly more likely to become obese than their rural counterparts - and the longer they stay, the greater the risk
Article URL: http://plos.io/3IxoWh6
Article title: Understanding the impact of urban exposure on obesity among middle and old-age migrants in India
Author countries: India
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...
Instagram images could influence public opinion on certain major events
2025-07-30
A new study of Instagram posts has uncovered strong statistical correlations suggesting that social media images may play a key role in shaping public opinion toward events, with notable social and political effects. Nafiseh Jabbari Tofighi of Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey, and Reda Alhajj of University of Calgary, Canada, Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey, and University of Southern Denmark, Denmark, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on July 30, 2025.
Some prior studies have suggested that images and videos on social media can significantly impact users’ sentiments ...
Different dimensions of psychopathy might be associated with different physiological underpinnings of facial emotion recognition - and oxytocin could affect this skill - per scoping review of 66 studi
2025-07-30
Different dimensions of psychopathy might be associated with different physiological underpinnings of facial emotion recognition - and oxytocin could affect this skill - per scoping review of 66 studies
Article URL: http://plos.io/4kFtGPd
Article title: Psychophysiology of facial emotion recognition in psychopathy dimensions and oxytocin’s role: A scoping review
Author countries: Portugal, U.K.
Funding: This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia in the form of a fellowship awarded to DP (Ref. 2022.00586.CEECIND/CP1722/CT0011; DOI: 10.54499/2022.00586.CEECIND/CP1722/CT0011) and an institutional ...
How cumulative heat exposure affects students
2025-07-30
A holistic approach reveals the global spectrum of knowledge on the impact of cumulative heat exposure on young students, according to an article published July 30 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Konstantina Vasilakopoulou from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and Matthaios Santamouris from the University of New South Wales, Australia. The article aims to shed light on the social and economic inequalities caused within and across countries, the potential adaptive measures to counterbalance ...
An international survey of over 300 adults reveals that males born in summer are potentially more prone to depression than those born in other seasons
2025-07-30
An international survey of over 300 adults reveals that males born in summer are potentially more prone to depression than those born in other seasons, though this trend was not mirrored in female study participants.
####
Article URL: https://plos.io/4525W1T
Article Title: Investigating the association between season of birth and symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults
Author Countries: Canada
Funding: This work was supported by Kwantlen Polytechnic University Student Research Innovation Grant (SRIG 2023-60 to AK). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. END ...
The unusual head of a fish and the puzzle of its genes
2025-07-30
Almost all animals have symmetrical bodies: If we look at the left and right halves of our body, the limbs, eyes and ears are arranged evenly along the axis that runs through the centre of our body. This bilateral symmetry is almost universal in all animals and is only very rarely broken – with exceptions like the five-armed starfish or crab species that have one large and one small claw. One example of broken bilateral symmetry is the cichlid fish Perissodus microlepis, which is native to Lake Tanganyika in Africa. Its head and especially ...
How does metformin lower blood sugar?
2025-07-30
Although metformin has been the go-to medication to manage type 2 diabetes for more than 60 years, researchers still do not have a complete picture of how it works. Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine and international collaborators have discovered a previously unrecognized new player mediating clinically relevant effects of metformin: the brain. By uncovering a brain pathway involved in metformin’s anti-diabetic action, researchers have discovered new possibilities for treating diabetes more effectively and precisely. The ...