Nature Reviews Cancer, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41568-026-00943-xThe heart is strikingly resistant to tumour formation despite its rich vascularization. In a recent study, Ciucci, Lorizio et al. identify mechanical load as a key barrier, showing that forces generated by cardiac contraction activate a mechano-epigenetic pathway that suppresses cancer cell proliferation in vivo and in engineered heart tissues.

This Review synthesizes emerging insights into how microenvironmental cues, epigenetic programmes and immune interactions govern disseminated cancer cell dormancy and outlines how advances in dormancy...

The established link between congenital anomalies and cancer could lead to improved surveillance and therapeutic strategies. However, we must first expand population-based studies to confirm these patterns, along with detailed molecular assessments to identify risk markers and deeper patient profiling to support precision medicine.

Nature Reviews Cancer, Published online: 24 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41568-026-00919-xIn this Review, Zhao and Shilatifard examine how mutations in components of the KMT2C-containing or KMT2D-containing COMPASS complex drive cancer progression and discuss therapeutic approaches targeting epigenetic, metabolic, immune and DNA repair vulnerabilities arising from this altered COMPASS activity.

Nature Reviews Cancer, Published online: 20 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41568-026-00908-0In this Review, Rowles and Patti present metabolomics workflows to study cancer across scales. They explore the nutrient demands of cancer cells and how those needs can be fulfilled through metabolic interactions within the tumour microenvironment or systemic crosstalk with distant tissues, and discuss the opportunities and challenges of each approach and offer insights into future research directions.

Targeted protein degradation (TPD) is an emerging pharmacological modality in cancer therapy. In this Review, Hinterndorfer et al. outline the mechanistic bases of TPD and discuss the characteristics, advantages and applications of established compounds as well as upcoming classes of degraders.

Acquired therapeutic resistance is a key contributor to cancer treatment failure, requiring new approaches to address its complex mechanisms. In this Roadmap, Soragni, Knudsen and colleagues discuss the mechanisms of acquired resistance and the models to better study it. Finally, they promote integration of biomarker-driven strategies and cutting-edge technologies to advance predictive and proactive prevention in cancer therapy.

The nervous and immune systems have co-evolved to respond to threats, including cancer. In this Review, Amit et al. outline the reciprocal interactions among neurons, immune cells and tumour cells that regulate peripheral antitumour immune responses and discuss how these mechanisms could be leveraged to enhance immunotherapy.

In this Review, Luri-Rey et al. present evidence for the crucial role of conventional type 1 dendritic cells in cross-presenting antigens from other cells via the major histocompatibility complex class I antigen-presenting machinery, which in turn is necessary to prime CD8+ T cells, which then mount efficient immune responses against cancer. The authors also discuss how we can exploit these processes in cancer immunotherapy by increasing the number and/or maturation or activation status of this specialist subtype of antigen-presenting cell.

Dendritic cells (DCs) shape the adaptive immune response to peripheral tissue antigens and, as such, are crucial for mounting an effective antitumour immune response in cancer. This Review outlines the molecular basis of DC maturation, highlights the mechanisms through which cancer impairs DC maturation and considers the potential for DC-focused cancer immunotherapeutics.

Cancer prevention vaccines have reduced cancer-related mortalities, yet therapeutic cancer vaccine development and clinical translation continues to face challenges. Here, Zaidi, Jaffee and Yarchoan summarize the failures of cancer vaccines of the past, to highlight recent advancements in the field.

In this Review, Bruhm et al. provide a comprehensive overview of targeted and genome-wide cell-free DNA detection approaches, examining their potential to complement existing screening programmes or enhance early cancer detection for those cancers without effective screening methods.

In this Review, Kennel and Greten highlight the role of immune cells in colorectal cancer (CRC) development, progression and metastasis as well as the impact of therapies on the immune microenvironment. They emphasize the need for novel strategies to enhance immunogenicity and CRC patient stratification to improve outcomes.

Ageing reshapes immune composition, function and regenerative capacity, with profound effects on tumour immunity, cancer progression and treatment outcomes. In this Review, Dolan and colleagues examine how age-resolved immunoprofiling, insights from ageing haematopoiesis and preclinical modelling are uncovering immune ageing dynamics and therapeutic challenges — revealing new opportunities to optimize cancer therapy across diverse age groups.

In a study published in Nature, Lourenço et al. demonstrate that strong oncogenic driver mutations undergo negative selection unless they occur in a permissive tissue context.

In this Review, Lu et al. discuss the dual role of the cyclic guanosine monophosphate–adenosine monophosphate synthase (cGAS)–stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway in cancer, emphasizing its involvement in both tumour suppression and promotion. They highlight the diverse sources of pathway activation and suggest that this functional duality may underlie the limited clinical success of cGAS–STING targeting in cancer therapy.

Artificial intelligence agents are autonomous systems that use large language models to reason and as such can perform complex, multistep tasks with minimal human oversight. This Review by Truhn et al. discusses how these agents — which have already been implemented in several industries — could transform cancer research and oncology, and looks at the challenges that need to be addressed before they can be efficiently and safely used.

Nature Reviews Cancer, Published online: 08 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41568-025-00889-6In this Review Luo, Kharas and Jaffrey outline how N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification affects RNA stability, translation, splicing and immune responses to influence cancer biology. They discuss emerging evidence on how m6A may influence cancer metabolic reprogramming and outline the challenges and opportunities of targeting m6A writers, erasers and readers for cancer therapy.

Nature Reviews Cancer, Published online: 08 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41568-025-00893-wMacrophages can eliminate cancer cells through phagocytosis, which is tightly regulated through inhibition and activation of various phagocytic receptors. In this Review, Veillette and colleagues outline how targeting these phagocytic checkpoints could be harnessed therapeutically, address therapeutic efficacy concerns, and propose strategies to enhance therapeutic outcomes in future clinical applications.

Nature Reviews Cancer, Published online: 09 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41568-025-00899-4A study published in Science shows that liver zonation shapes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development. In mice, HCC predominantly originates from zone 3 hepatocytes, where GSTM2 and GSTM3 drive initiation by inhibiting ferroptosis, revealing metabolic vulnerabilities in liver cancer.

Ageing is a fundamental driver of cancer, fostering the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes that disrupt cellular homeostasis, promote immune ...

Sex matters in metastasis, but it has received little attention in research. Here, we highlight the emerging and important roles of biological sex in metastasis and advocate for mechanistic and quantitative studies for the future development of sex-tailored therapies.

Neurotoxicity impacting the central and peripheral nervous systems is a considerable adverse effect of both conventional and novel cancer therapies. In this Review, Karschnia et al. outline what is currently known about the mechanisms that underlie the clinical symptoms of central nervous system injury and peripheral neuropathy and the ongoing development of interventions to treat and prevent this unmet medical need.

From today, all new submissions to Nature that are published will be accompanied by referees’ reports and author responses — to illuminate the process of producing rigorous science.

In this Perspective, Joshua Rubin emphasizes the importance of gender–sex interaction (GSI) differences in cancer biology and clinical parameters to enhance precision medicine. He outlines the challenges and opportunities of integrating GSI effects into personalized oncology and argues that optimal outcomes require extending our current molecular approaches to include family history, life history and individual vulnerabilities in our diverse groups of patients with cancer.

In this Review, Erez and colleagues examine the complex interactions among tumours, their microenvironment and the host, shaping a metabolic macroenvironment that drives cancer progression. They explo...

Research into women’s health has suffered from historical neglect and lack of funding.

Genetic predisposition is the major known cause of cancer in children and adolescents. In this Review, Kratz highlights the genetic architecture of cancer in children and adolescents, examining cancer predisposition syndromes, cancer predisposition genes, embryonic mosaicism and polygenic risk...

In this Roadmap, Boire et al. consider the immediate causes of mortality in patients with cancer, a topic not often considered in either preclinical or clinical research, and provide recommendations for how we can stimulate research to advance our mechanistic understanding of these causes with a....

In this Review, Paul et al. provide an overview of therapeutic antibodies as an important modality in cancer therapy today. They summarize the different approaches used by antibodies to target cancer cells including those of immune checkpoint inhibitors, bispecific antibodies...

In their Review article, Fuchs and colleagues discuss how a single or a few mutations in adult cells can lead to invasive cancers without a high mutational burden, demonstrating that non-genetic factors induce the epigenetic changes necessary for tumorigenesis.

This Review provides an introductory guide to artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools for non-computational cancer researchers. Here, Perez-Lopez et al. outline the general principles of AI for image analysis, natural language processing and drug discovery...

Immunosuppression disrupts normal skin homeostasis, raising the risk of cancer development. Now, Son et al. find that commensal papillomavirus maintains homeostasis in sun-damaged skin.

Pet dogs with cancer facilitate comparative oncology, enhancing translational research. In this Comment, Lenz and Atherton highlight comparative oncology successes, emphasizing the need for broader application of findings from canine studies to improve human cancer treatments.

In this Review, Polak, Zhang and Kuo discuss the currently available and rapidly evolving 3D tumour organoid models that capture the tumour immune microenvironment. They highlight opportunities for organoid-based investigations of tumour immunity, drug development and precision medicine.

Clonal evolution is now a central theoretical framework in cancer research. In this Perspective, Laplane and Maley identify challenges to that theory such that some non-evolutionary phenomena in cancer cannot be captured by the theory.