Citations

Abstract Therapeutic resistance in ovarian cancer is frequently driven by persistent replication stress, yet the molecular mechanisms that convert replication stress into a therapeutically exploitable vulnerability remain incompletely understood. Here, we identify drug-induced nuclear cathepsin L (nCTSL) as a previously unrecognized regulator of replication stress and DNA repair. Clofarabine (CLF) combined with the ATR inhibitor AZD6738, or the CHK1 inhibitor prexasertib promoted nuclear accumulation of CTSL, where it remodeled the replication machinery through degradation of CCNE1, MCM3, MCM6, and geminin, accompanied by loss of RAD51 and 53BP1 and increased γH2AX and phospho-RPA2. DNA fiber analysis demonstrated marked inhibition of replication fork progression following CLF-based combinations, whereas CTSL depletion accelerated fork progression and abolished therapy-induced replication stress. Reconstitution with the nuclear M1F CTSL isoform restored replication restraint, confirming a direct role for nuclear CTSL in regulating replication dynamics. GFP-based DNA repair reporter assays further revealed that CLF-based combinations suppress DNA repair competence in a CTSL-dependent manner, indicating that nuclear CTSL couples replication stress amplification with functional inhibition of repair pathways. Functionally, CLF-based combinations selectively targeted transformed fallopian tube secretory epithelial cells while sparing non-transformed counterparts, demonstrated broad activity in patient-derived ovarian cancer ascites spheroids, and significantly inhibited tumor growth and prolonged survival in vivo . Collectively, our findings identify nuclear CTSL as a mechanistic driver of replication stress that remodels the replication machinery, impairs DNA repair, and creates a therapeutically exploitable vulnerability in ovarian cancer. We propose that nuclear CTSL promotes a transition from replication competence to replication catastrophe, thereby establishing a conceptual framework for biomarker-guided therapeutic strategies targeting CTSL-dependent replication stress.

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) that occur during mitosis are primarily repaired by Polθ-mediated microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ). The CIP2A–TOPBP1 complex has been shown to tether broken chromatin at mitotic DSBs, but whether it coordinates with or functions independently of Polθ remains unknown. Here, we show that the CIP2A–TOPBP1 complex is recruited to mitotic DSB sites, where it directly interacts with Polθ and corecruits Polθ to chromatin. CIP2A sustains Polθ phosphorylation by inhibiting PP2A, thereby prolonging Polθ chromatin retention and enabling efficient repair. Upon repair completion, the CIP2A–TOPBP1 complex dissociates, PP2A dephosphorylates Polθ, and Polθ is released from chromatin. Loss of CIP2A impairs tumor growth, while disruption of CIP2A–Polθ binding leads to persistent DNA damage, micronucleus formation, and synthetic lethality in BRCA1/2-deficient cells. These findings uncover a cooperative mechanism by which CIP2A–TOPBP1 dynamically regulates Polθ in mitotic DSB repair and provide insights into the synthetic lethal interaction of CIP2A with BRCA1/2 under radiotherapy.

Automated diagnostic report generation lies at the core of clinical diagnosis and can alleviate clinician shortages. Existing diagnostic report generation methods have two major limitations: they rely on unimodal inputs (e.g., images), ignoring textual biomarkers like medical history, and lack proactive dialogue capabilities to elicit personalized clinical information. To address those issues, we propose a ProActive Multimodal Agentic (PAMA) system, which performs comprehensive disease analysis by examining biomarkers in diverse sources, including multi-view medical images, medical histories, and diagnostic conversations. Built upon a knowledge graph and recommendation-based dialogue architecture, PAMA actively initiates adaptive, multi-turn conversations with patients, which is integrated with visual data for robust and reliable report generation. Specifically, PAMA actively generates adaptive multi-turn questions to collect clinically relevant background information, and then fuses the resulting dialogue context with visual representations for robust diagnostic report generation. We validate our approach on two real-world benchmark datasets, MIMIC-CXR and IU-Xray, through extensive quantitative evaluations and comparisons with state-of-the-art baselines. Furthermore, we conduct user studies to assess the realism and clinical quality of the generated reports. Finally, we present real-world case studies to examine the performance of our system across diverse scenarios, demonstrating its robustness on scalability, complexity, and data variability.

Squamous cell lung cancer (SqCLC) accounts for 20–30% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and remains associated with a poorer prognosis compared with adenocarcinoma. Despite advances in treatment, 5-year overall survival for advanced (stage IV) disease remains below 10–15%. Unlike non-squamous NSCLC, SqCLC is characterized by a high tumor mutational burden and complex genomic landscape dominated by alterations in tumor suppressor genes and lineage survival pathways including TP53, CDKN2A, PIK3CA, FGFR1, SOX2, and the NFE2L2/KEAP1 oxidative stress pathway, as well as dysregulation of the NOTCH signaling pathway, but it harbors relatively few actionable oncogenic drivers, resulting in limited treatments for targeted therapy. HER2 alterations can occur by multiple mechanisms, including activating mutations, gene amplifications, and protein overexpression. They comprise a very small percentage of NSCLC, with HER2 mutations reported in approximately 1–3% and HER2 amplifications observed roughly in 2–4%. While HER2 alterations are well characterized in lung adenocarcinoma, the prevalence, genomic context, and clinical significance of HER2 alterations in SqCLC remain incompletely defined. Advances in next-generation sequencing have led to improved ability to detect HER2 alterations and facilitated the development of HER2 targeted therapies. Available treatments for advanced/metastatic SqCLC have been historically limited to platinum-doublet chemotherapy, with immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1/PD-L1 newly emerging in the past decade. Selective HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitors and HER2 antibody/drug conjugates have shown improved efficacy in HER2-altered NSCLC as shown in DESTINY-LUNG02 and BEAMION LUNG-1 trials; however, most of the enrolled patients had non-squamous histology, with minimal or no SqCLC-specific efficacy data reported. Future progress in HER2-altered SqCLC will require inclusion of SqCLC in HER2 basket trials, incorporation of comprehensive molecular profiling and standardized HER2 testing in squamous histology. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge of HER2 biology in SqCLC and highlights areas for future directions for precision oncology in SqCLC.

ABSTRACT Background The adoption of angle‐based minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) procedures has accelerated in recent years; however, inherent limitations remain. Imaging‐based techniques across the pre‐, intra‐ and post‐operative stages of surgery may facilitate patient selection and improve surgical outcomes. This systematic review explores the application of imaging‐based techniques to visualise aqueous humour outflow (AHO) in angle‐based MIGS. Methods A literature search was performed on PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library from inception to 16 February 2025. Cohort, cross‐sectional and observational studies reporting the use of imaging‐based techniques to visualise AHO in angle‐based MIGS were included in this review. Results An initial 393 studies were identified, with 21 studies included in final analysis. Imaging techniques reported in literature included various methods to directly observe episcleral veins, haemoglobin venous imaging (HVI), fluorescein and indocyanine green (ICG) aqueous angiography, channelogram and anterior segment optical coherence tomography angiography (AS‐OCTA). Visualisation of AHO pre‐ and intra‐operatively may predict surgical outcomes, aiding in patient selection and surgical prognostication. Intra‐operative imaging may facilitate targeted placement of MIGS in areas of initially angiographically low or high areas of AHO. AHO assessment pre‐, intra‐ and post‐operatively may allow comparative analysis of surgical success and efficacy across various angle‐based MIGS. Conclusions Imaging‐based techniques visualising AHO have significant potential to improve surgical outcomes of angle‐based MIGS.

Imaging-based, single-cell, spatial transcriptomics (iSCST) of FFPE tissue enables comprehensive analysis of archived specimens while preserving spatial context, critical to an understanding of ulcerative colitis (UC) pathology. Here, we deployed a robust framework for applying iSCST to clinical FFPE mucosal biopsies from patients with UC or immune checkpoint inhibitor–induced colitis, as well as patients serving as healthy controls. iSCST using custom Xenium gene panels enabled precise detection of diverse cell subsets and disease-specific genes. We mapped transcriptionally distinct fibroblast subsets within mucosal niches, including inflammation-associated fibroblasts (IAFs), and identified colitis-specific neighborhoods formed by IAFs, monocytes, and neutrophils. Transcriptional signatures and spatial neighborhoods uncovered through iSCST were associated with vedolizumab (VDZ) response, with nonresponders exhibiting either an innate IAF-monocyte-neutrophil signature or adaptive gut-associated lymphoid tissue signature, while responders showed enrichment of an epithelial cellular neighborhood. These signatures were validated in an internal and an external dataset, supporting the existence of 2 distinct archetypes of treatment resistance to VDZ in UC. This iSCST framework provides a powerful approach for analyzing FFPE tissues, offering insights into colitis-associated cellular networks and identifying biomarkers to enhance patient risk stratification in routine clinical workflows.

Objective Glaucoma and cancer are debilitating diseases with increasing global prevalence and morbidity. However, current literature lacks a systematic consolidation of their relationships and interactions. This systematic review aims to (A) summarize the association between intraocular/non-ocular cancers and their treatments with the prevalence and etiology of glaucoma, (B) explore glaucoma as a risk factor for complications or poor prognosis for intraocular cancer, and (C) explore the management of glaucoma secondary to cancer therapies. Methods A systematic search was performed from inception to July 2025 across three databases with variants of ‘cancer’ and ‘glaucoma’ as search terms. Findings were narratively synthesized. Results Of 8,103 identified studies, 44 were included in this review. Eighteen studies reported increased glaucoma prevalence amongst intraocular and non-ocular cancer patients. Fifteen studies suggested increased risk of regional invasion, metastases, and high-risk histopathologies when intraocular cancers co-occurred with glaucoma. Corticosteroids in cancer therapy have been linked to intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation, while androgen deprivation therapy was associated with lowered glaucoma risk. Conclusion Given the relationship between glaucoma and intraocular/non-ocular cancers, strategies to monitor and manage glaucoma risk following cancer diagnosis and/or therapy may be considered. Glaucoma may be an early sign of complications in intraocular cancers.

e17027 Background: Guidelines recommend active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer and definitive therapy for high-risk disease. We evaluated national patterns of risk-misaligned care and the survival consequences of undertreatment. Methods: National Cancer Database prostate cancer cases diagnosed from 2010–2022 were analyzed. Low-risk disease was defined as clinical T1–T2, Grade Group 1, and PSA < 10; overtreatment was definitive treatment vs active surveillance or no treatment. High-risk disease was defined as Grade Group ≥4, PSA ≥20, or clinical T3–T4; undertreatment was no definitive local therapy or incomplete definitive therapy. Multivariable logistic regression evaluated factors associated with misalignment. Overall survival (OS) among high-risk patients was assessed using multivariable Cox regression. Results: Among low-risk patients (N = 124,562), overtreatment occurred in 40% of cases. Overtreatment was more common among young men (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.982; p < 0.001) and less common at academic centers (aOR 0.414; p = 0.015). Compared with White men, odds of overtreatment were lower among Black men (aOR 0.946; p = 0.002) and Asian men (aOR 0.827; p < 0.001), with additional variation by education and region (all p < 0.001). Among high-risk patients (N = 318,532), undertreatment affected 27.3% of patients and was more common among older men (aOR 1.061; p < 0.001). Compared with White men, undertreatment was higher among Black men (aOR 1.479; p < 0.001) and lower among Asian patients (aOR 0.863; p < 0.001) (overall race p < 0.001). Compared with private insurance, undertreatment was higher in Medicaid (aOR 2.038; p < 0.001) and uninsured patients (aOR 2.649; p < 0.001), and slightly lower with Medicare (aOR 0.931; p < 0.001) (overall insurance p < 0.001). Multiple comorbidities were associated with higher undertreatment (≥2 vs 0: aOR 1.252; p < 0.001). Facility type was not independently associated (p = 0.490), while region remained significant (overall p < 0.001). In the survival cohort (high risk) (N = 338,919), undertreatment was associated with substantially worse OS (HR 2.745, 95% CI 2.706–2.784; p < 0.001), adjusted for age (HR 1.056; p < 0.001), race (p = 0.001), insurance (p < 0.001), comorbidity (p < 0.001), income (overall p < 0.001), education (overall p < 0.001), and facility region (overall p < 0.001). Conclusions: Low-risk overtreatment remains common nationwide and varies across patient and health-system factors. In high-risk disease, undertreatment affects over one-quarter of patients and disproportionately impacts Black men and those with Medicaid or no insurance. Undertreatment confers a nearly threefold mortality hazard (adjusted HR 2.75; p < 0.001), highlighting a major national quality gap and the urgent need for system-level interventions to ensure equitable, guideline-concordant delivery of definitive therapy.