ROCHESTER, Minn. — A large prospective study published today in Nature Medicine found that a blood test designed to detect multiple cancers identified cancer signals across 17 broad cancer types, such as ovarian, lung, breast and colorectal cancers, and many which do not have recommended screening tests.

Mayo Clinic was among the institutions participating in the prospective, interventional study, which enrolled 35,878 adults age 50 and older. Karthik Giridhar, M.D., a Mayo Clinic medical oncologist, was a study investigator and senior author.

The multicancer early detection (MCED) test analyzes small fragments of DNA that cells release into the bloodstream. Researchers use patterns in these fragments to detect signals associated with cancer. When a cancer signal is detected, the test also predicts the likely location of the cancer to help physicians determine appropriate follow-up testing.

Among 32,007 participants included in the study's performance analysis, 287 had a positive MCED test result. Cancer was diagnosed in 173 of those participants. The test had a positive predictive value of 60.3% and specificity of 99.64%. Among participants with a true-positive result, the test correctly predicted one of the two most likely cancer signal origins in 91.3% of cases.

"One of the challenges in cancer screening is that most cancers do not have an established screening test," says Dr. Giridhar. "This study helps us better understand how a multicancer blood test might complement existing screening approaches by identifying cancer signals that otherwise may not be detected through routine screening."

Researchers found that 72.8% of cancers detected by the MCED test were cancer types without U.S. Preventive Services Task Force grade A or B screening recommendations. Among the 151 participants with at least one newly diagnosed primary cancer detected by the test, 53% had stage 1 or 2 disease and 70.9% had stage 1, 2 or 3 disease.

Giridhar also notes that these tests are not yet a substitute for established cancer screenings. Instead, they may supplement existing screening approaches and help expand understanding of cancer detection.

PATHFINDER 2 was a single-arm study, and its endpoints were descriptive, with no comparator group or formal hypothesis testing. The authors say randomized trials and further follow-up are needed to determine the clinical utility of MCED testing in routine clinical practice. The study also used an earlier version of the test that has since been replaced by a commercially available version.

The study was designed and funded by GRAIL Inc., which also participated in data analysis and interpretation and preparation of the manuscript. Dr. Giridhar reports consulting and advisory relationships with GRAIL and other organizations and travel expenses from GRAIL. A complete list of author disclosures is included in the published study.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Julie Ferris-Tillman, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Multicancer blood test detects 17 cancer types in large prospective study appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Helix to generate clinical whole genome sequencing and multi-omics data from one million biospecimens, advancing precision medicine as the standard of care

ROCHESTER, Minn. and SAN MATEO, Calif. — Precure, LLC today announced the selection of Helix as its multi-omic laboratory and AI tools provider supporting plans to generate comprehensive molecular data from approximately one million biospecimens and accelerate the integration of molecular insights into routine clinical care at Mayo Clinic and across health systems more broadly.

Less than a week ago, Mayo Clinic announced the launch of Precure, LLC, with founding partner Thermo Fisher Scientific, to help transform how the life sciences community understands the biological changes that occur as disease develops before symptoms occur. Precure, LLC brings together clinical expertise, de-identified longitudinal health information and population-scale molecular data to accelerate the development of new approaches to care.

Helix will provide both advanced AI tools for delivery of genomics into the clinic and biomarker driven research, and population scale multi-omic capability that encompasses clinical whole genome sequencing (WGS) and research grade proteome sequencing. Linked with longitudinal clinical information and high performance compute infrastructure, the objective is to create new opportunities for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

“Our goal is to generate genomic information that can help inform patient care while creating a powerful resource for discovery,” said Aaron Mangold, M.D., chief medical officer, Precure, LLC. “We are working to make clinical whole genome sequencing and multi-omics a foundation of care, helping us detect disease sooner and act earlier.”

Building on prior work which utilized Helix’s Exome+ ^® sequencing technology, Precure, LLC extends that collaboration by leveraging Helix's experience providing workflow orchestration, (CLIA/CAP) genomic sequencing, data infrastructure, and AI tools to its health system partners. Precure, LLC and Helix have selected Ultima Genomics’ UG200™ Ultra Sequencing Platform as part of the program’s large-scale multi-omics initiative. Helix will use a fleet of Ultima’s next-generation platforms to generate high-quality genomic data for WGS and read-out for proteomics at scale.

“The genome is becoming an enduring patient resource, providing a precision baseline for a lifetime of care,” said James Lu, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Helix. “Helix brings together the laboratory and data capabilities to make this possible at scale.”

Mayo Clinic's involvement in Precure, LLC is intended to advance its nonprofit mission. Any financial returns to Mayo Clinic would be reinvested in its mission of patient care, research and education. Visit mayo.edu/research/precure for more information.

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About Precure, LLC
Precure, LLC is a Mayo Clinic-controlled company established to generate and responsibly integrate population-scale molecular data with longitudinal clinical information. Precure, LLC creates the infrastructure and scale needed to enable external collaborations, disease-focused discovery and the development of new diagnostics, therapeutics and other healthcare solutions. It complements Mayo Clinic’s investigator-led research and clinical translation activities.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.  

About Helix
Helix is an enterprise genomics company connecting clinical care and discovery. Its platform brings together clinical sequencing, integration of genomic information into healthcare, and research tools built on linked genomic and longitudinal clinical data. Through its health system partnerships, the Helix Research Network and GenoSphere, Helix helps healthcare and life sciences organizations apply genomics to patient care and the development of new diagnostics and treatments. Learn more at www.helix.com.

Media contacts:

• Tom Millikin, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
• Caty Reid, Helix, helix@highwirepr.com

The post Precure, LLC selects Helix as multi-omics lab and AI tools provider appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a strategy that could help chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy, or CAR-T cell therapy, overcome a major barrier to treating solid tumors: Cancer cells can change in ways that allow them to hide from immune cells designed to attack them.

In a preclinical study published in Molecular Cancer, researchers found that drugs used to treat advanced thyroid cancer can restore a marker on aggressive thyroid cancer cells, making the cancer visible again to specially engineered CAR-T cells. Combining the drugs with CAR-T cell therapy resulted in better tumor control and survival in preclinical models than either approach alone.

Rather than further modifying CAR-T cells to recognize cancers that have lost their targets, researchers sought to change the tumor so the target reappears.

"We often think about engineering the immune cell to overcome resistance," says co-senior author Saad Kenderian, M.B., Ch.B., a hematologist and oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. "This work shows another possibility."

Making an aggressive cancer visible again

CAR-T cell therapy engineers T cells — immune cells that help protect the body from disease — to recognize a specific target, or antigen, on cancer cells. The approach has transformed treatment for some blood cancers but has been less successful against solid tumors.

One reason is that solid tumors can lose or reduce the antigens CAR-T cells are designed to recognize, making it more difficult for the engineered cells to identify and destroy the cancer.

The Mayo Clinic team focused on the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR), a protein found primarily on thyroid cells. CAR-T cells targeting this receptor showed strong antitumor activity against thyroid cancers with high TSHR levels. Their effectiveness was more limited against anaplastic thyroid cancer, the most aggressive form of the disease with low or no TSHR expression.

Turning the target back on

Researchers investigated whether they could restore TSHR through a process known as redifferentiation, in which aggressive cancer cells regain some of the biological features they had lost.

They used drugs that inhibit the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, including trametinib and dabrafenib, which are approved to treat advanced thyroid cancer.

In patient-derived models of anaplastic thyroid cancer, MAPK inhibition increased TSHR expression on tumor cells. When researchers combined the drugs with TSHR-targeted CAR-T cells, the combination produced stronger tumor control and survival than either treatment alone.

"One of the key discoveries from our work is that antigen density matters. We showed that restoring TSHR expression with combination therapy can sensitize aggressive thyroid tumors to CAR-T cell attack, effectively turning a suboptimal target into a more vulnerable one. This approach may provide a new framework for enhancing CAR-T therapies across solid tumors where target expression is limited," says co-first author Claudia Manriquez Roman, Ph.D., process development engineer at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Researchers also found that the MAPK inhibitors did not appear to interfere with the CAR-T cells' ability to multiply or attack cancer cells. Instead, the drugs created a temporary window in which  the CAR-T cells could target cancer cells that had previously escaped detection.

TSHR expression declined after MAPK inhibitor treatment stopped, but two weeks of concurrent treatment was sufficient to improve CAR-T cell activity in the preclinical models.

"What’s exciting about this approach is that we're taking advantage of the cancer cell's own biology to restore TSHR expression by blocking MAPK signaling with molecular targeted drugs," says co-senior author John Copland III, Ph.D., cancer biologist and translational researcher at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Dr. Copland noted that approximately 2,500 Americans die per year from metastatic thyroid cancer disease. 

A potential strategy beyond thyroid cancer

Although the study focused on thyroid cancer, the concept could have implications for other solid tumors where treatments use immune therapy that targets similar surface markers.

Researchers are completing studies needed to support phase 1 clinical trial testing of TSHR-targeted CAR-T cells. The therapy could be studied alone in patients whose tumors continue to express TSHR or in combination with MAPK inhibitors in patients whose tumors have lost TSHR expression.

The researchers hope the approach ultimately could lead to another treatment option for patients with cancers that no longer respond to available therapies.  

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, read the study.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Julie Ferris-Tillman, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Study shows reprogramming thyroid tumors may improve CAR-T cell therapy appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers report encouraging results using a new radiation technique called minibeam radiotherapy to treat patients with treatment-resistant cancers in or near the skin. The technique delivers very high doses of radiation through closely spaced, extremely narrow beams while limiting radiation exposure to healthy tissue between the beams. 

In a study published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, researchers found symptoms improved in 86% of patients. Among 40 tumors evaluated, 22.5% disappeared, 25% shrank and 45% remained stable.

"What's encouraging is that patients were able to tolerate these higher radiation doses, even though many had cancers that had resisted previous treatments," says Michael Grams, Ph.D., co-first author of the study and radiation oncology medical physicist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We're also seeing evidence that this type of radiation may work together with the body's immune system. That could give us another way to approach difficult-to-treat cancers."

The findings suggest that minibeam radiotherapy may do more than change how radiation is delivered. It also may affect tumor biology.

Rethinking how radiation is delivered

Conventional radiation therapy aims to deliver enough radiation to destroy cancer cells while limiting damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Advances in technology have made it possible to target tumors with increasing precision.

"Tumors that require high doses of radiation and have infiltrated sensitive parts of the body provide the most formidable challenge for us. Ideally, we could treat the tumor and preserve function," says Scott Lester, M.D., co-author and a radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We want to eliminate the cancer and simultaneously promote healing to get the best functional outcome for our patients."

Mayo Clinic researchers began studying minibeam radiotherapy five years ago, building on preclinical research. They developed a device called a tungsten collimator that divides a conventional radiation beam into 0.5-millimeter beamlets spaced 1 millimeter apart from center to center.

The resulting pattern creates areas of high radiation exposure, or "peaks," separated by areas of low exposure, or "valleys." Researchers believe this pattern allows healthy tissue to repair and regenerate more effectively than with conventional radiation therapy. "The treatment can also be completed in two or three sessions instead of 10 to 30 sessions, making it particularly meaningful to patients," says Dr. Grams.

Studying minibeam radiotherapy in patients for the first time

The clinical trial treated 36 patients with 46 tumors, 40 of which could be evaluated. Patients had advanced skin cancers, including melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma, or soft tissue sarcomas. Ninety percent of patients had received at least two previous cancer therapies, and all tumors had been resistant to other treatments. 

Of the 46 tumors, 39 tumors (85%) were treated with minibeam radiotherapy alone, while seven (15%) also received planned conventional radiation therapy.

At a median follow-up of about 15 months, 22.5% of evaluable tumors had disappeared, 25% had shrunk and 45% remained stable. At 12 months, the estimated local control rate — meaning the cancer had not progressed in the treated area — was 89% overall and 92% among tumors receiving minibeam radiotherapy alone.

Patients also experienced substantial symptom relief.

"The study suggested a compelling benefit to quality of life for patients, from relief from pain and bleeding to restoring daily physical functions," says Kimi Chauhan, M.D., a resident in radiation oncology at Mayo Clinic and co-first author of the study.

Patients experienced fewer radiation-related side effects than typically seen with conventional radiation despite receiving higher radiation doses. "The treatment appears to support tissue healing while attacking cancer, making it particularly relevant for complex cases where conventional options are limited," says Dr. Lester. 

Understanding the immune response

Researchers also observed an unexpected finding that raises questions about how minibeam radiotherapy may interact with the immune system.

In 11% of patients, cancer outside the area treated with minibeam radiation also responded, even though patients received no other cancer treatments. This phenomenon, known as an abscopal response, can occur when radiation delivered to one tumor is associated with a response in cancer elsewhere in the body.

"This represents an important shift in how we think about radiotherapy because our results suggest that you don't necessarily need to treat all of the tumor with an ablative dose," says Robert Mutter, M.D., chair of research in the Department of Radiation Oncology and co-leader of the Novel Therapeutics and Therapeutic Modalities Research Program at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We may be able to exploit the distinct ways that tumors die after minibeam radiotherapy to personalize treatment and activate the immune system to fight the cancer."

What's next for minibeam radiotherapy research

Researchers are conducting laboratory studies to better understand the mechanisms that trigger the immune response and which patients are most likely to benefit. An ongoing phase 1 clinical trial is testing increasing doses of minibeam radiotherapy. The team is also developing studies investigating its use in early-stage breast cancer in combination with immunotherapy and during surgery for unresectable pancreatic cancer.

"Minibeam radiotherapy gives us another potential treatment tool for complex cancers," says Dr. Grams. "The goal is now to understand where it can have the greatest impact for patients."

For more information, funding and authors, read the study.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center
Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is defining the cancer center of the future, focused on delivering the world's most exceptional patient-centered cancer care for everyone. At Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, a culture of innovation and collaboration is driving research breakthroughs in cancer detection, prevention and treatment to change lives.

Media contact:

• Julie Ferris-Tillman, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic first to study minibeam radiotherapy in patients with difficult-to-treat cancers appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Pioneering initiative will generate data at the frontier of healthcare to help transform early biological signals into new opportunities for prevention, diagnosis and treatment

ROCHESTER, Minn. and WALTHAM, Mass. — Mayo Clinic today announced the launch of Precure, LLC, with founding partner Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, to help transform how the life sciences community understands the biological changes that occur as people move from health toward disease.

Precure, LLC will create one of the world’s leading biomedical datasets through one of the largest human multi-omics data-generation efforts, integrating proteomic, genomic and longitudinal clinical data to help researchers identify early biological signals of disease and provide a foundation for new discoveries in disease biology, diagnostics and therapeutics.

Many diseases begin developing biologically years before symptoms lead to a clinical diagnosis. By connecting molecular and clinical data over time, Precure, LLC has the potential to help researchers better understand these early changes, accelerate drug development and create new opportunities for earlier diagnosis, intervention and more personalized care across a wide range of diseases, such as cancer, cardiometabolic disease, neurological disorders and immune-mediated disease.

Precure, LLC will bring together molecular data generated from one million biospecimens, linked with longitudinal clinical information collected over several years, integrating genomic and proteomic information with Mayo Clinic’s clinical data and expertise in a highly standardized setting. Advanced AI and large-scale data-analytics will be integral to identifying patterns within these complex datasets and translating them into actionable insights. Mayo Clinic will serve as the majority owner of Precure, LLC. Thermo Fisher joins the partnership as a minority owner.

"At Mayo Clinic, we are committed to transforming patient care through innovation," says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, Mayo Clinic. "By harnessing the full potential of multi-omics data, Precure, LLC aims to help us better understand disease before symptoms appear, accelerating discoveries that can lead to earlier diagnoses, more targeted treatments and better outcomes for patients."

Together, the organizations contribute complementary expertise designed to generate the molecular and clinical data needed to accelerate discovery and translate new insights into advancements in patient care:

• Mayo Clinic combines world-class clinical and research leadership with advanced AI and data science capabilities, extensive biospecimens and longitudinal de-identified clinical data to accelerate discovery and translate insights into advances for patients.
• Thermo Fisher brings industry-leading proteomics expertise and solutions, including its cutting-edge proteomics platform, Olink™ Explore HT, and Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry, kits and reagents to help build Precure, LLC’s multi-omics ecosystem.

“Precure LLC has the potential to create a step change in how we generate and apply multi-omics data to improve human health,” said Marc Casper, Chairman and CEO, Thermo Fisher Scientific. “By combining Thermo Fisher’s leadership in scientific technology with Mayo Clinic’s leadership in clinical care, research and innovation, we can create new opportunities at unprecedented scale to detect disease earlier, accelerate drug development and enable more precise therapies.”

Precure, LLC complements Precure Research, Mayo Clinic’s investigator-led scientific effort to understand the biological changes that occur as people move from health toward disease. Precure Research advances the science of identifying and understanding early disease signals, while Precure, LLC provides the scale, infrastructure and collaborations needed to generate population-scale molecular data and help translate discoveries into new diagnostics, therapeutics and other healthcare solutions. Mayo Clinic provides the pathway to validate discoveries and ultimately brings meaningful advances into patient care.

Mayo Clinic's involvement in Precure, LLC is intended to advance its nonprofit mission. Any financial returns to Mayo Clinic would be reinvested in its mission of patient care, research and education.

Visit mayo.edu/research/precure for more information.

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About Precure, LLC
Precure, LLC is a Mayo Clinic-controlled company established to generate and responsibly integrate population-scale molecular data with longitudinal clinical information. Precure, LLC creates the infrastructure and scale needed to enable external collaborations, disease-focused discovery and the development of new diagnostics, therapeutics and other healthcare solutions. It complements Mayo Clinic’s investigator-led research and clinical translation activities.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.  

About Thermo Fisher Scientific 
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue over $45 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, increasing productivity in their laboratories, improving patient health through diagnostics or the development and manufacture of life-changing therapies, we are here to support them. Our global team delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Gibco, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services, Patheon and PPD. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com. 

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements relating to Thermo Fisher Scientific, Mayo Clinic, and Precure, LLC and its ambitions and potential impact. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. A discussion of these and other risks related to Thermo Fisher Scientific are contained in its most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q under “Risk Factors,” available in the “Investors” section of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s website under “SEC Filings.” These statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and all parties disclaim any obligation to update them, except as required by law.

Media contacts:  

• Tom Millikin, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
• Jodie Wertheim, Thermo Fisher Scientific, jodie.wertheim@thermofisher.com

The post Mayo Clinic and Thermo Fisher Scientific launch Precure, LLC to identify signs of disease before symptoms appear appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic announced today that its Mayo Clinic Care Network reached a 15-year milestone as a global community of more than 50 member organizations, representing 80 hospitals and nearly 20,000 physicians.

Created in 2011, the Mayo Clinic Care Network includes carefully selected independent organizations worldwide committed to enhancing the quality of healthcare to advance patient care. Members have access to Mayo Clinic's clinical knowledge and specialists while continuing to serve patients in their local communities. Altru Health System in Grand Forks, North Dakota, was the first member to join the Mayo Clinic Care Network.

"For the past 15 years, the Mayo Clinic Care Network has brought together like-minded organizations to solve complex medical challenges and advance patient care," says Christine C. Johnson, associate vice president, Mayo Clinic Care Network. "By sharing knowledge and expertise, we can strengthen what each organization delivers locally and help more patients benefit from high-quality care, wherever they are."

The Mayo Clinic Care Network began as a new way for member organizations to access Mayo Clinic's expertise and to connect as a network of peers. Over time, that relationship has expanded to support needs across clinical care, education, operations, leadership, and innovation.

With the launch of Mayo Clinic Platform in 2019, Care Network members gained additional opportunities to engage with data-driven innovation and emerging technologies designed to support the evolving needs of their organizations and communities.

Some of the impact over the past 15 years includes:

• 63,545 eConsults from members to Mayo Clinic experts on complex diagnoses, treatment plans, and other clinical questions.
• 1,283 inpatient telephone consults supporting care at the bedside.
• 1,720 eBoards, or live, interactive conferences on complex cases.
• 292 affinity group meetings, both virtual and in-person, connecting colleagues across specialties, roles, and geographies.
• 121,520 Health Care Consulting hours supporting local organizational priorities.

"Being the first member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network was an important milestone for Altru and the patients and communities we serve," says Josh Deere, M.D., president of Altru.

"For 15 years, this relationship has allowed us to remain rooted in our community while connecting our physicians and teams with Mayo Clinic expertise and colleagues around the world. That combination of local care and shared expertise is incredibly valuable, and we are proud of the difference this longstanding relationship has made for our patients and our region."

To learn more about how members have successfully used Mayo Clinic's solutions and services for the benefit of patient care, visit Mayo Clinic Care Network.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Caroline Auger, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic Care Network marks 15-year milestone as a global community of member organizations to advance healthcare appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have found that artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled spatial analysis can identify patterns in routine pathology slides that may help clinicians identify which patients with pancreatic cancer are at greater risk of recurrence after treatment and surgery.

The study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, suggests that looking at how residual cancer is organized — not just how much remains — could eventually improve estimates of recurrence risk, particularly for patients whose tumors show only a limited response to chemotherapy before surgery.

Patients with a more fragmented, intermixed pattern of cancer and the surrounding tissue, or stroma, had earlier recurrence. The amount of residual cancer alone did not reliably separate patients at higher and lower risk.

"Current pathology assessments largely tell us how much tumor is left after treatment. We wanted to know whether the geography of that remaining cancer could reveal additional biology about recurrence risk," says Ryan Carr, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic oncologist and senior author of the study.

Dr. Carr and his team used an AI tool to identify cancer and stromal regions on standard pathology slides, then measured how those regions formed patches, boundaries and mixed areas to evaluate spatial patterns tied to a higher risk of recurrence. 

Reading the geography of cancer 

The study analyzed tissue from 203 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma who received treatment before surgery but showed only a limited pathologic response. The researchers combined an AI-enabled digital pathology platform with methods adapted from landscape ecology to analyze standard hematoxylin and eosin, or H&E, slides. The approach measured tissue shape, fragmentation, and the degree to which the cancer and stroma were intermixed.

The work builds on Dr. Carr's broader research applying ecological principles to cancer. His team uses machine learning and spatial analysis to map the pancreatic cancer ecosystem and study how cancer cells interact with neighboring cells and tissues — relationships that may influence treatment resistance and recurrence.

Two spatial signatures predicted disease-free survival even after accounting for stage, lymph node status, and other established clinical and pathologic risk factors.

In one model, high-risk patients had a 71% higher adjusted risk of recurrence. In another, high-risk patients had more than twice the adjusted risk. These spatial models helped distinguish patients at higher and lower risk when standard measures, including how much cancer remained, did not.

Because the approach uses pathology slides already generated as part of routine care, it could potentially give clinicians additional information to inform recurrence risk without requiring another tissue test.

Linking tumor patterns and immune response 

"What is exciting is that this information is already present in the tissue," Dr. Carr says. "AI-enabled analysis gives us a way to measure features that are difficult to capture by eye and potentially add another layer of precision to how we assess risk after surgery."

The research also found that high-risk spatial patterns contained fewer immune cells within the cancer itself, with immune cells tending to collect around the tumor instead of entering it. The finding underscores the importance of the tumor microenvironment — the cells and tissues surrounding a tumor — in treatment resistance and disease behavior.

More broadly, the work aligns with Mayo Clinic's Precure Research priority to use data and technology to predict risk earlier and create opportunities to intercept serious disease before it advances.

"Our long-term goal is to better identify which patients remain at greatest risk and ultimately use that knowledge to guide more individualized surveillance, adjuvant therapy and clinical trial design," Dr. Carr says.

The researchers say the results are promising but need to be confirmed in prospective studies before this approach could be used to inform clinical decision-making.

The research was supported in part by the Gerstner Family Career Development Award, the Grand Forks Career Development Award, the Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science, and the ARPA-H ADAPT program. For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study. 

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About Mayo Clinic 
Mayo Clinic  is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.  

Media contact: 

• Julie Ferris-Tillman, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu 

The post AI-enabled analysis of pathology slides may help assess risk of pancreatic cancer recurrence    appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a potential new approach to treating glioblastoma that could help the immune system fight the aggressive brain cancer while improving the effectiveness of existing chemotherapy.

The preclinical research, published in Nature Communications, found that inhibiting the enzymatic activity of a protein called MALT1 can reprogram immune cells surrounding glioblastomas, shifting them from a state that helps protect the cancer to one that promotes an antitumor immune response.

Researchers also found that treatment with a MALT1 inhibitor slowed tumor growth in preclinical models and that combining MALT1 with temozolomide, the chemotherapy most commonly used to treat glioblastoma, enhanced temozolomide effectiveness. In one preclinical model, median survival substantially increased when this chemotherapy was combined with MALT1 inhibition in comparison to treatment with temozolomide alone.

"Glioblastoma is extraordinarily difficult to treat, in part because the tumor is able to manipulate the immune cells around it and create an environment that protects the cancer. Our findings point to a potential approach to disrupting that protection and, importantly, to making an existing treatment more effective," says Juliana (Hofstatter Azambuja) Yerneni, Ph.D., lead author and researcher in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic.

Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive primary cancerous brain tumor in adults and accounts for roughly 5% of malignant brain tumors in children. Despite surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, the cancer remains incurable and almost always returns.

The findings raise the possibility of a future approach that could help patients get more benefit from existing treatments.

"Our goals are to discover how glioblastoma communicates with the immune cells surrounding the tumor in order to dampen the antitumor immune response and to use these discoveries to identify new treatments that enhance antitumor immune response and improve outcomes for patients with this devastating disease," says Linda McAllister-Lucas, M.D., Ph.D., pediatric oncologist, enterprise deputy director for pediatric cancer programs of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and co-senior author of the study with Peter Lucas, M.D., Ph.D., vice chair for research in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic.

More research is needed to determine which specific subtypes of glioblastoma may be most likely to respond to MALT1-targeted therapy and to evaluate its potential for use in patients.

Review the study for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic researchers find a way to reprogram immune cells and boost chemotherapy response in glioblastoma appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic Platform today announced that its Accelerate program for healthcare technology companies is now available through a multiyear engagement pathway. The inaugural participants of the multiyear track include 12 companies developing artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions to enhance care delivery and healthcare operations.

"The Accelerate program was intentionally designed to support digital health companies ready to transform healthcare," says Jamie Sundsbak, director of the Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate program." As participation continues to grow, the program has evolved to support solutions developers through multiple pathways tailored to their different stages of development."

The multiyear pathway is designed for select companies seeking sustained access to Mayo Clinic Platform's discovery environment, data, technology and expertise. Through an extended engagement, participants can work alongside Mayo Clinic Platform's experts and leverage its de-identified clinical data ecosystem to advance the development and validation of their digital health solutions.

The 12 companies selected as the first participants in the multiyear pathway are developing AI-enabled solutions that leverage clinical data and advanced analytics to transform healthcare.

• Cappsule is an AI-enabled ambient monitoring platform designed to support clinical decision-making through continuous, real-world data capture.
• CerebraAI develops AI-powered software as a medical device that aims to upgrade the diagnostic capability of noncontrast computed tomography imaging, bringing it closer to MRI standards.
• Clair Health is building a women's health intelligence platform grounded in continuous, direct hormone data.
• Durotimi AI is a pioneering healthcare technology company dedicated to transforming cancer care through advanced, localized AI.
• Electrokare is building AI infrastructure for continuous biological intelligence — turning today's snapshot healthcare system into continuous measurement.
• Floe Health is a clinical reasoning engine for hospital case management.
• Koroid is an AI-native operating system for healthcare operations.
• MedLink Global is pioneering AI-powered solutions to transform psychiatric care.
• OPTT Health is a clinically led AI platform for scalable mental healthcare.
• PONS aims to make ultrasound accessible to the mass market by addressing the limitations of high-resolution images in the early stages of disease.
• Radical Health offers a patient-facing second opinion service that allows patients to receive personalized treatment recommendations.
• Respiree is an AI/machine learning health tech company building state-of-the-art, clinically-validated AI for managing disease progression across healthcare's care continuum.

Since its launch in 2022, Accelerate has supported more than 130 companies from around the world. To learn more about the program or to apply for an upcoming cohort, visit Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Mayo Clinic Platform
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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers tested an approach that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help people without previous ultrasound experience capture heart images and identify patients who may have a common and serious heart valve condition. In a study published in JAMA Cardiology and presented at the 2026 ESC Congress, after four hours of training, novice users were able to collect focused heart ultrasound images while using  AI models to guide their image collection and help to analyze the images for signs of moderate or greater aortic stenosis.

Aortic stenosis happens when the heart's aortic valve narrows, making it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. It affects approximately 7% of people age 75 and older and is the most common reason for heart valve intervention worldwide. People with aortic stenosis may not experience symptoms until the condition is more advanced. Finding the disease earlier can help ensure patients receive appropriate monitoring and care.

"A comprehensive echocardiogram is the standard diagnostic test for aortic stenosis. However, its use is resource-intensive, requiring specialized equipment as well as trained personnel with expertise in both image acquisition and interpretation. These requirements can limit access, particularly in resource-constrained settings, and make comprehensive echocardiography neither feasible nor cost-effective as a broad screening tool," says Gal Tsaban, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic and senior author of the study.

"We wanted to see whether combining AI guidance with focused cardiac ultrasound could help people with no previous ultrasound experience capture usable heart images and identify patients who may need further evaluation," adds Jared Bird, M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist who co-led the study.

First, the researchers developed and validated the deep learning algorithm using echocardiograms from patients at Mayo Clinic sites in Arizona, Florida, the Mayo Clinic Health System and Rochester. They evaluated the model's performance on hand-held ultrasound images collected by experienced sonographers.

In the prospective study, nine research staff members with no previous clinical or ultrasound experience used AI guidance to perform focused heart ultrasounds after four hours of training. The staff members were able to use the AI model to analyze nearly 97% of the exams. It helped the researchers correctly identify 93% of patients with moderate or more severe aortic stenosis and correctly rule out 96% of patients who did not have the condition.

About 10% of exams were flagged for review by a heart imaging specialist. The combined approach of AI plus human review reduced false-positive results, but it also meant that some patients with aortic stenosis were not identified.   

Dr. Tsaban and Dr. Bird note that the approach is intended to help people screen for aortic stenosis and determine who may benefit from additional testing. It is not intended to replace a comprehensive echocardiogram or a physician's evaluation. Patients identified as potentially having moderate or more severe aortic stenosis still need comprehensive echocardiography to confirm the diagnosis and determine the severity of the condition.

The findings suggest that putting AI tools in the hands of people with limited ultrasound experience could help more patients access screening for aortic stenosis, particularly in communities where comprehensive echocardiography and trained imaging professionals are less readily available.

A full list of authors, appropriate disclosures and funding sources for this research can be found within the paper: "Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Acquisition and Interpretation for Screening Aortic Stenosis." Mayo Clinic has a financial interest in the technology referenced in this news release and will use any revenue it receives to support its nonprofit mission in patient care, education and research.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post AI-assisted approach helps novice users capture heart ultrasound images, identify aortic stenosis  appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.