Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet for Feb. 2026
2026-02-14
(Press-News.org) FEBRUARY 2026 TIP SHEET
Chemotherapy Resistance
Can Chemo-Resistant Cancer Cells Be Resensitized?
A new study from Sylvester researchers may have found a workaround for the long-standing problem of chemotherapy resistance and, in turn, identified an encouraging way to restore the power of widely used chemotherapy drugs. The study, published this month in Genes & Development, explains how blocking a key protein forces damaged cancer cells into a state of uncontrolled transcriptional activity. This action creates novel cellular stress that can make even chemo-resistant tumors sensitive again to treatment.
Cancer Survivorship
Helping Lymphoma Patients Survive and Thrive After Treatment
Some lymphoma patients describe life after treatment as learning to steer a boat in new waters. Now, a $4-million, multi-site National Cancer Institute study, SMART 3RP Lymphoma, is designed to teach lymphoma survivors practical tools to manage stress, strengthen coping skills and improve their daily quality of life. “Resilience isn’t a trait you either have or don’t have,” explains Frank Penedo, Ph.D., Sylvester’s principal investigator for the study and director of the Sylvester Survivorship and Supportive Care Institute. “It’s a skill set, like learning to play an instrument.” The study plans to enroll 250 patients who have completed curative therapy within two years.
Cancer Discovery
Sylvester Looks to Sea, Sky for Cancer Cures and Insights
Sylvester Cancer is looking to the sky and below the ocean’s surface to expand the horizon of cancer discovery. South Florida’s only NCI-designated cancer center is partnering with UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science to turn the ocean into a living laboratory that serves as a launchpad for innovation. At the school’s Glassell Family Center for Marine Biomedicine, teams of scientists are probing below the ocean’s surface for cancer clues. Additionally, atmospheric researchers are study cancer-causing environmental factors, including those on the Superfund: National Priority List.
Cancer Profile
Shria Kumar, M.D.: Researcher Strives to Reduce GI Cancer Burden
Shria Kumar, M.D., believes in a basic cancer truth: The best way to reduce cancer burden is to prevent cancer. Seeing historically disadvantaged groups deal with cancer inequities led Kumar, a member of Sylvester’s Cancer Control Program, to study ways to prevent gastrointestinal cancer. She studies eradicating Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a bacteria that can cause stomach cancer, and also focuses on groups facing the highest risk of early-onset colon cancer. She shares her research insights in this linked profile.
Cancer Research
Sylvester Welcomes New Era in Cancer Research (Video Available)
Sylvester Cancer welcomed a new era in cancer discovery this month with the official unveiling of its Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building. The 12-story, 244,000-square-foot structure on UHealth’s downtown Miami campus combines highly specialized laboratories with collaborative spaces organized around research neighborhoods, state-of-the-art clinical care and wellness spaces. It brings patients, clinicians and researchers under one roof to accelerate cures and deliver personalized medicine designed to change cancer’s trajectory.
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2026-02-14
Even as misinformation proliferates across the Internet, sites containing low-credibility health information remain relatively scarce and unseen.
That’s according to new research from University of Utah communication scholars who tracked web-surfing activities of more than 1,000 U.S. adults for four weeks. But the findings, published in Nature Aging, illuminate a dark side. Traffic to such sites is concentrated heavily among older adults, especially among those who lean right politically.
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Adult survivors of childhood cancers are at higher risk for another cancer – such as breast, colorectal, sarcomas and thyroid cancer – that is not a relapse of their original illness. Previous cancer therapies are largely responsible, however up to 13 percent of survivors also have hereditary predisposition that elevates their risk of subsequent cancer. A recent clinical trial found that genetic services via remote centralized telehealth and in collaboration with primary care increased the uptake of genetic ...
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Recent global crises have exposed the limits of a universal mortality threshold for declaring famine—an approach that can obscure how famine actually unfolds across different populations. In a paper published in the Lancet, researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues call for a fundamental re-examination of how famine thresholds are defined.
“The mortality thresholds used by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) were developed for rural African settings, not middle-income urban populations,” said L.H. Lumey, MD, PhD, Columbia Mailman School professor of Epidemiology. “There are stark disparities ...
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A newly identified soil bacterium may help unlock cleaner ways to recycle carbon dioxide and produce valuable chemicals using electricity. In a recent study, researchers report that the sulfate reducing bacterium Fundidesulfovibrio terrae possesses an unusual ability to both export and absorb electrical energy while converting carbon dioxide into acetate, an industrially important organic compound. The findings reveal a previously unknown microbial strategy that could support future carbon neutral technologies and sustainable chemical production.
The research team isolated the microorganism from paddy soil and discovered that ...
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Antibiotic treatments are losing effectiveness against a range of common bacterial pathogens, including E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Salmonella and Acinetobacter, according to a warning issued by the World Health Organization last October. For the microbe that gives rise to tuberculosis, a team of researchers from Penn State and The University of Minnesota Medical School found that a potential solution may be chemically changing the structure of a naturally occurring ...
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A new study has uncovered that the Erhai Lake Basin in southwest China is releasing far more atmospheric nitrogen pollution than it absorbs, raising concerns about regional air quality, ecosystem health, and long-distance pollution transport.
Atmospheric reactive nitrogen is a group of nitrogen compounds that influence air pollution, climate, and ecosystem stability. These compounds play important roles in forming fine particulate matter, worsening smog, and driving water eutrophication that threatens biodiversity and drinking water safety. Understanding where these pollutants originate and how they move through the environment is essential for designing effective pollution control strategies.
In ...
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Scientists are highlighting biochar, a carbon-rich material produced from biomass, as a promising solution to help soils store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, offering new hope in global climate mitigation efforts.
In a new comprehensive review, researchers synthesized current knowledge on how biochar improves soil carbon storage, reduces greenhouse gases, and provides practical frameworks to measure its climate benefits. The findings demonstrate that biochar could play a crucial role in transforming soils into ...
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Ikoma, Japan—
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are tiny membrane-bound particles released by cells to transport proteins and other molecules to neighboring cells. Because of this natural delivery ability, EVs have attracted growing interest as potential vehicles for therapeutic protein and genome-editing enzyme delivery. However, EVs can originate either from intracellular endosomal compartments or directly from specialized protrusions on the cell surface, and until now, it has remained unclear which EV type is more effective at delivering functional protein cargo.
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The American Meteorological Society has released the following Rapid Response Statement in response to the repeal of the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding.
A Response to the Decision to Rescind EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is deeply concerned by the repeal of EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, which correctly concluded that greenhouse gas emissions harm health and well-being for current and future generations.
AMS reaffirms key scientific conclusions of climate change that relate to the Endangerment Finding:
1. The impacts of climate change are harmful to people ...
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“Like father, like son? Can parenting styles break the intergenerational pattern of alcohol and drug use?” A group of Brazilian researchers analyzed data on the behavior of 4,280 adolescents and their guardians based on this question, arriving at two important conclusions.
Yes, parental attitudes are one of the most relevant factors in preventing alcohol and drug use among young people. However, the way guardians educate their children can significantly mitigate the risk, even in families where caregivers use these substances, including cigarettes, vapes (which are banned in Brazil), and marijuana.
The reduction in risk is more significant when the relationship ...
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[Press-News.org] Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet for Feb. 2026
