“This is the Wave of the Future”: A Summer of Cancer Research Developments
Graphic by Evelyn Ferguson
Summer 2026 brought four breakthroughs in cancer research within a single month. These included new laboratory models of cancer, personalized cancer vaccines, a drug that targets proteins scientists once thought were invincible, and improved immunotherapy effectiveness. International research teams made the progress, but Harvard affiliates were at the center of each advancement, highlighting the University’s international impact on cancer research.
Researchers at Longwood’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, played a critical role in these developments.
“We’re very proud of the types of research going on here in melanoma, also in many other forms of cancer as well. This is the wave of the future,” Dr. David Fisher, Department of Dermatology Chair and Distinguished Wigglesworth Professor of Dermatology at HMS, said in an interview with the “Harvard Independent.” Fisher is also a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he studies the pathways that cause melanoma.
Patient-Derived Cancer Models
On Aug. 5, a team led by researchers at Dana-Farber published 665 next-generation patient-derived cancer models, spanning 27 forms of cancer. The research was an international effort and was the first of its kind to release all results publicly at once. The 665 cancer models doubled the number of available in vitro models, significantly expanding resources for researchers.
“This is likely to be everyone on the team’s most important contribution to cancer biology in their career because the resulting resource enables new research at such a large scale and for many years into the future,” Dr. Keith Ligon told journalists at Dana-Farber.
The published models include 3D organoids, 3D spheroids, and 2D patient-derived cell lines representing adult and pediatric cancers. These next-generation methods improve on earlier models, which became inaccurate over time, allowing researchers to produce versions that stay reliable for longer.
This advancement is especially significant for rare cancer types, which make up 20% of published models. Previously, researchers had access to only a couple of models for certain rare cancer types.
Personalized Cancer Vaccines
Two weeks later, on Aug. 19, Merck and Moderna announced success in producing personalized cancer vaccines that reduced melanoma recurrence and spread. Dr. Catherine Wu, a current professor at HMS and a researcher at Dana-Farber, published the proof of concept for personalized cancer vaccines in 2017. Her research was foundational to the advances made by Merck and Moderna.
Experts explained to the “Harvard Independent” that the unique methodology used to formulate the vaccines is just as significant as the vaccines themselves. “This is different from historical discoveries against cancer, where a drug was discovered by luck or some natural product,” Fisher explained. “This is rational and mechanistically based.”
In the scientific journal “Nature,” reporters Rachel Fieldhouse and Mohana Basu explained that the vaccine is a personalized mRNA treatment that uses the same mRNA technology used to develop COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccine’s phase three clinical trial compared it with the best treatments currently available; it was the first of its kind to succeed in a late-stage trial. However, the personalized vaccines are still a long way from being the go-to treatment for melanoma. “It doesn’t prove to us that this treatment has jumped to the front of the line,” Fisher continued.
Fisher acknowledged that while this treatment is promising, questions regarding its implementation still need to be answered. “It will take a little time to figure out how to exactly integrate that into the treatment algorithm for patients,” Fisher said.
New Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer
A week after Merck and Moderna announced their personalized melanoma vaccine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a different drug, a once-daily tablet to treat pancreatic cancer. Harvard scientist Dr. Greg Verdine led the research behind the breakthrough.
Verdine started his company, Warp Drive Bio, in 2012 and began developing drugs that target a protein called KRAS. The KRAS protein signals a cell to grow and divide or to take on another role. The KRAS gene is an oncogene, so when it is mutated, it can turn cells cancerous by altering their growth and life cycle.
In 2018, Revolution Medicines acquired Warp Drive Bio, the company now leading the production of daraxonrasib, the drug that targets KRAS proteins using an approach Verdine researched years earlier.
Previously, the challenge of targeting mutated KRAS proteins was that they were almost impenetrable to drugs. However, in 2013, scientist Kevan Shokat at the University of California, San Francisco, found a weakness in KRAS proteins that helped develop daraxonrasib.
While it is promising to have another treatment option available for pancreatic cancer patients, such developments force physicians to have difficult conversations with patients.
“As a practicing physician, I see new developments really through the lens of each individual patient that’s sitting in front of me,” Dr. Leah Biller, a gastrointestinal oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said in an interview with the “Harvard Independent.” Biller described a disconnect between what the headlines emphasize about a treatment and what that advancement actually means for individual patients. “They’ve revolutionized the care for a subset of patients, which is fantastic, but there is still so much more to go.”
“A headline can make a preliminary finding sound like an established treatment,” Biller continued. “It can make for challenging conversations, but they are important conversations.” These difficult conversations ultimately build the trust and understanding at the foundation of a physician-patient partnership.
Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance
On Sept. 2, a team spearheaded by Dr. Chen Chu at Dana-Farber published findings showing that CDK2 inhibitors could help immunotherapy work even in resistant cancers.
CDK2 inhibitors, previously used to treat only specific types of cancer, may now benefit a broader range of cancers, recent evidence suggests.
CDK2 inhibitors make immunotherapy more effective by reducing resistance to immunotherapy treatments. One form of immunotherapy is immune checkpoint inhibitors, which release the immune system from its own checkpoints, allowing it to attack cancer cells more productively. However, some cancers resist this therapy. When paired with a CDK2 inhibitor, the immunotherapy can overcome this tolerance.
This treatment was successful in mouse models but has not yet been tested in humans. Dr. Peter Sicinski, a professor of genetics at HMS, is a co-senior author of the study. “One should always be skeptical, as many approaches that work in mice do not work in humans,” he wrote in an email to the “Harvard Independent.”
This is just one part of immunotherapy’s development. The Cancer Research Institute describes the 2000s as a “renaissance” for immunotherapy. In 2001, Dr. Robert D. Schreiber showed that the immune system helps fight cancerous cells.
Since then, immunotherapy has continued to advance. The National Cancer Institute describes immunotherapy as treating cancer by empowering a patient’s own immune system, the patient’s built-in line of defense, to fight the disease.
These developments are exciting and show strong promise for future treatments. However, much more research is still needed. Early detection and prevention, along with effective treatments, remain important, Biller said. “For me, the revolution happens when I’m out of a job because cancer is not even happening anymore.”
Kathleen Shovlin ’29 (klshovlin@college.harvard.edu) is comping the “Harvard Independent.”