The problem lies in the lack of genetic diversity in the samples studied. Although the drugs are used worldwide, the data supporting their efficacy do not always reflect the range of biological, environmental, and social profiles of the patients who receive them.

Historical dominance and the impact of new countries entering the field

Historically, the United States and Europe have conducted most of the clinical research in oncology, establishing treatment parameters based on relatively homogeneous population groups. 

According to experts, this geographical focus could create significant gaps in our understanding of cancer in other regions, such as Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia.

A study published in the American Cancer Society’s journal Cancer in October 2025 analyzed two decades of clinical trials in oncology (from 2001 to 2020) carried out in low- and middle-income countries. 

The authors found that although these nations have increased their contribution to the international scientific literature, this growth remains uneven and depends, to varying degrees, on each country’s economic development.

Why diversity in clinical trials matters

Genetic factors, dietary habits, environmental conditions, and even differences in access to diagnoses influence how cancer develops and responds to medication. 

Studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries help explain how these characteristics—in Latin American, African, or Asian populations—affect treatment outcomes.

Factors explaining why diversity matters in clinical trials

1. Genetics: Distinct biological profiles can alter how cancer responds to the same medication.

2. Eating habits: Diets vary between regions and can influence the progression of certain types of cancer.

3. Environmental conditions: Exposure to pollutants and other environmental factors affects both the risk and progression of the disease.

4. Access to diagnosis: Structural differences in access to testing and early diagnosis determine the stage at which treatment begins.

Expanding clinical research in developing countries helps decentralize science and generates data that are more consistent with local epidemiological characteristics. 

The presence of research centers in these regions also tends to accelerate diagnoses, facilitate patient access to innovative therapies, and strengthen national scientific infrastructure.

Urgency reinforced by WHO projections

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO), global cancer cases are expected to increase by 77% by 2050, from approximately 20 million to more than 35 million diagnoses per year. The impact is forecast to be proportionally greater in countries with a low or medium Human Development Index (HDI). 

Researchers argue that this outlook underscores the urgency of including historically underrepresented populations in global scientific research.

More than merely a matter of geographical distribution, expanding clinical research is seen as an important step towards developing treatments that are more effective, inclusive, and compatible with the true diversity of patients around the world.

O post Cancer treatments advance, but clinical trials lack diversity apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

Currently, all approved CAR-T products are manufactured outside the patient’s body in a process known as ex vivo production: T cells are collected from the patient’s blood, activated and genetically modified in a laboratory to express CARs, expanded, and then reinfused into the body. 

Despite the clinical benefits of the process, there are some well-known limitations, including long manufacturing times, short product shelf life, the need for prior chemotherapy to reduce the patient’s immune cells (known as lymphodepletion), and high costs.

One alternative currently under development is the production of CAR-T cells directly within the patient’s body, an approach known as in vivo production. 

Several strategies are being tested for generating CAR-T and other immune cells directly within the body, with preclinical findings suggesting that the approach could open a new pathway for cancer immunotherapy. 

This is the conclusion of a literature review published in the journal Cancer Research by researchers from City of Hope National Medical Center and the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine), who analyzed current strategies for in vivo engineering of CAR immune cells. 

The review focused on the types of vectors used and the methods employed to target genetic modification at specific cell types.

Incipient technology 

According to the authors, the technology is still in its early stages: the first human clinical trials using the strategy were carried out recently, involving cases of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and severe systemic lupus erythematosus resistant to conventional treatments. 

One of the main obstacles is the absence of lymphodepletion. Without this preparatory step, used in conventional therapies to stimulate CAR-T cell expansion and reduce tumor burden, cells generated directly within the body may find it more difficult to expand and remain active for a sufficient time.

Even so, studies in non-human primates have produced encouraging results. 

In one, a single infusion of a lentiviral vector targeting the CD3 protein, found on the surface of T lymphocytes, was able to stimulate the expansion of CAR-T cells in the body and maintain B-cell depletion for up to ten weeks, without the need for prior lymphodepletion.

Another promising aspect of the technology is its potential for reprogramming immune cell types that are currently difficult to manipulate using conventional lab techniques, such as short-lived neutrophils, innate lymphocytes, and specialized dendritic cell subtypes. 

These cells play important roles in immune system regulation and disease progression but have remained beyond the reach of traditional CAR platforms.

Safety under review

One concern regarding these therapies is their toxicity, which varied across the clinical trials analyzed by the authors. In a study involving a candidate known as ESO-T01, developed for multiple myeloma, all four patients experienced acute reactions after infusion.

Three patients required vasopressor medication to stabilize blood pressure and three developed grade 3 cytokine release syndrome (CRS), a potentially severe inflammatory condition associated with CAR-T therapies. All cases, however, were successfully managed with glucocorticoids.

In a trial of experimental therapy HN2301, designed for refractory systemic lupus erythematosus, no severe cases of CRS or immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) were reported among the five patients treated. 

Some experienced increases in inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, three of whom were given tocilizumab to manage mild CRS symptoms.

According to the authors, the findings suggest that although infusion-related toxic effects may occur with in vivo CAR-T therapies, they tend to be manageable with currently available medical interventions and do not, for now, appear to represent a major barrier to the technology’s advancement.

The researchers argue that as in vivo CAR-T therapies progress onto new clinical trials, it will be essential to establish robust regulatory frameworks and ethical guidelines to ensure the safe and effective incorporation of these innovations into clinical practice and, in the long term, expand access to more patients.

How are CAR-T cells produced?

O post In vivo CAR-T: therapy produces anti-cancer cells in the body apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

Preliminary data from the study—a phase 3 randomized clinical trial conducted in the United States—were presented during the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), held May 29–June 2 in Chicago (USA), in the session on Supportive Care and Integrative Medicine.

Caused by certain chemotherapy drugs and the doses administered, CIPN can cause pain, tingling, loss of sensation, and functional limitations—symptoms that can persist for months or years, even after treatment ends.

Despite its high incidence and significant impact on the quality of life of cancer patients, there are still few effective alternatives for managing it.

Acupuncture is one of the Integrative and Complementary Health Practices (PICS), as described in a Science Arena article published in 2024 on how integrative approaches can support oncology, provided they are evidence-based for managing the adverse effects of cancer and its treatment. 

In Brazil, the technique is part of the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices (PNPIC), implemented by the Ministry of Health to incorporate these practices into the nation’s Unified Health System (SUS), with a focus on disease prevention, health promotion, and humanized and comprehensive ongoing care. 

Non-pharmacological alternative

A total of 255 patients were recruited for the study, having completed chemotherapy at least three months prior and experiencing moderate to severe neuropathic pain. The sample included patients of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds with a history of breast, colorectal, and ovarian cancers, among other tumors. 

Ten sessions were conducted over eight weeks, followed by a period of monitoring. Initial results showed a high burden of symptoms, demonstrating the magnitude of the problem and the need for new treatment strategies. 

According to the researchers, the participant group adequately represents the population affected by chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, increasing the potential applicability of the results in clinical practice. 

Based on the study’s preliminary findings, electroacupuncture may emerge as a non-pharmacological alternative for managing neuropathic pain and improving quality of life for patients with different types of cancer.

According to the study, with positive results the intervention could expand the range of evidence-based integrative approaches available for managing the late effects of cancer treatment.

Outcome analyses will be reported at a later date, but they are expected to indicate whether electroacupuncture can offer meaningful clinical benefits for patients with no evidence of disease or with stable conditions.

O post Electroacupuncture may help treat chemotherapy-induced pain apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

The research, conducted by personnel from the Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group (LACOG) and Einstein Hospital Israelita in Brazil, was featured in a report published by Science Arena in April.

The analysis examined 16,977 clinical trials registered between 2001 and 2020 across 20 countries classified as low- and middle-income (LMICs) at the beginning of the study period.

Its primary objective was to investigate the relationship between growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the volume of oncology clinical trials, and to assess the extent to which economic growth does—or does not—account for the development of clinical research.

The correlation between GDP and clinical trial volume

Most of the countries analyzed increased their number of clinical trials during the study period. However, the strength of the relationship between economic growth and growth in clinical trial activity varied considerably.

The researchers measured this relationship using the Pearson correlation coefficient, on a scale from 0 to 1. Countries with rapidly expanding economies, such as China (0.93) and South Korea (0.97), showed a very strong correlation.

Countries with less consistent economic growth, including Brazil (0.68) and Argentina (0.51), exhibited a moderate correlation, meaning that clinical trial activity increased but did not keep pace with what might have been expected based on economic performance alone.

The findings suggest that GDP is a contributing factor, but not the sole driver of growth in clinical trial activity. India and Indonesia, for example, experienced robust economic growth yet showed very weak correlations with increases in oncology studies—0.02 and −0.20, respectively.

China and South Korea: What sets the leaders apart? 

Among the 20 countries analyzed, only China and South Korea succeeded in developing independent clinical research at scale—studies not sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. Both countries increased the proportion of early-phase trials (phases 1 and 2) relative to late-phase trials (phase 3). During the second period analyzed (2011–2020), phase 1–2 studies had become predominant in both countries, an indicator of greater technological sophistication and scientific autonomy. 

Their progress was not driven by economic growth alone. China undertook a sweeping regulatory reform in 2015 and, in 2018, shifted from an approval-based system to one based on registration for multinational clinical trials, dramatically reducing bureaucratic hurdles. South Korea adopted the International Council for Harmonisation’s Good Clinical Practice standards (ICH-GCP) in 2000 and established national training programs for conducting clinical studies. According to the authors, these reforms may, in themselves, explain part of the progress observed, independent of GDP growth. 

Dependence on the pharmaceutical industry: A structural challenge 

With the exception of China and Egypt, the vast majority of LMICs remained highly dependent on industry-sponsored clinical trials throughout both periods analyzed. In Brazil, for example, 80 percent of trials conducted between 2001 and 2010 were sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry, a figure that declined only slightly to 76 percent, in the following decade. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru all maintained industry sponsorship rates above 85 percent during the second period.

This pattern is problematic because industry-sponsored trials are typically designed to address questions more relevant to high-income countries, which represent the pharmaceutical industry’s primary commercial markets. Although such trials provide benefits to LMICs by expanding access to experimental therapies, they rarely address the specific needs of local populations or their healthcare systems.

The Brazilian Case: Growth Constrained by Structural Limitations

Brazil showed a moderate correlation (0.68) between GDP growth and growth in clinical trial activity, indicating that even during periods of economic expansion, research output did not increase as might have been expected. One factor highlighted by the study is the country’s relatively low investment in research and development (R&D): in 2020, Brazil allocated just 1.14 percent of its GDP to R&D, compared with 2.4 percent in China that same year.

The study also cites findings presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in 2025, showing that Brazilian cancer patients harbor significant concerns about being used as “guinea pigs” in clinical trials. According to the authors, this cultural perception may limit patient recruitment and hinder the development of independent clinical research in the country.

Measures to foster the development of clinical research in low- and middle-income countries

A worsening scenario

The study’s findings take on added significance in light of projections from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), which which estimates that the global cancer burden will increase by 77 percent by 2050. 

The impact is expected to be greatest in countries with lower Human Development Index (HDI) scores—the very countries that, according to the study, continue to produce lower-complexity clinical research and remain highly dependent on industry-sponsored trials.

The authors conclude that periods of economic hardship should not be a barrier to the continued development of clinical research. The measures needed to strengthen research capacity—such as regulatory reforms, workforce training, and the creation of collaborative research networks—require relatively modest investment while offering long-term benefits.

According to the authors, the study can serve as “a roadmap for LMICs seeking to achieve the highest levels of performance.”

O post Cancer clinical trials grow more slowly than expected in Brazil, study finds apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

I recommend the article “How an ‘Impossible’ Idea Led to a Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough,“ published by The New York Times on May 12, 2026, and written by Gina Kolata and Rebecca Robbins. The article draws on interviews with 27 scientists, physicians, and clinical trial participants.

It recounts the story of a discovery that took more than four decades to finally reach patients—and which for a long time was deemed impossible.

WHY IS THIS ARTICLE IMPORTANT?

The Times article is a deeply researched piece of science journalism: 27 sources, a 44-year timeline, and individuals who paid a price for challenging the prevailing consensus. Kevan Shokat, of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), spent five years sifting through 500 molecules in search of a protein pocket that the entire academic field had written off. Greg Verdine of Harvard looked to nature for a solution that conventional chemistry could not imagine. Both were ignored or ridiculed by “eminent” researchers—but they persisted.

The report also documents the true cost of a mistaken consensus. The idea that the KRAS protein was inaccessible to drugs was not a fringe position: it was the dominant one. Companies left the field. Researchers were denied funding. The report is a case study in the limits of scientific authority and what is lost when it goes unquestioned.

WHAT MAKES THIS ARTICLE A MUST-READ?

There are two passages in the text worth reading on their own.

The first is the profile of Rhea Caras, a retired lawyer diagnosed in 2023 with metastatic pancreatic cancer and told she had months to live. Two years later, she still takes her pills daily and is planning a trip to Hawaii with her family. “I’m almost certain I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for this drug,” she says. “I’m living a pretty good life, and I never expected that.”

The second is Robert Weinberg. In 1982, the MIT scientist made one of the seminal discoveries regarding the role of RAS genes in cancer. In an interview this month, at age 83, he remarked that it took 44 years for patients to benefit from his work and that he lived to see it happen. “It would have been nice if the Lord had sent us something easier to tackle,” he said. “But that’s not what happened.”

O post Daraxonrasib: the story of a drug that took 44 years to develop apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

The final results of the RASolute 302 study, a phase 3 randomized clinical trial involving approximately 500 patients, indicated that the once-daily oral drug nearly doubled the median survival rate compared with conventional chemotherapy in previously treated patients: 13.2 months with daraxonrasib against 6.6 ‒ 6.7 months with chemotherapy. 

The study also found a 60% reduction in the risk of death and a longer time before disease progression.

These findings build on previous data published in early May 2026 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), which had already suggested that daraxonrasib could slow the progression of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest malignancies. 

In patients who had already received other treatments, tumors shrank in approximately one-third of cases, and median survival exceeded 13 months—results that surpass what is typically seen at this stage of the disease.

These mutations keep cellular growth signaling permanently activated, promoting cancer cell proliferation. Previously developed inhibitors targeted only KRAS G12C, a specific variant that is rare in pancreatic cancer.

Daraxonrasib was developed to overcome this limitation. 

Rather than waiting for the RAS protein to enter its inactive state before blocking it, the drug recruits a second protein, cyclophilin A, to intercept the signal while RAS is still active.

In addition, the compound targets multiple variants of the mutation, including KRAS G12D, G12V, and G12R, which together account for most cases of pancreatic cancer.

To evaluate its potential, researchers conducted a clinical trial involving 168 people with RAS-mutated pancreatic cancer who had previously received at least one line of therapy. 

The study combined phases 1 and 2, designed to evaluate safety, optimal dosing, and early signs of efficacy. Among the doses tested, 300 mg produced the best results: approximately one-third of patients experienced tumor shrinkage, and median survival exceeded 13 months after treatment began.

Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, frequently after the disease has already spread to other organs. 

The Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA) estimates 13,240 new cases per year during the 2026–2028 triennium. Excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer, pancreatic cancer ranks ninth among the most common cancers in Brazil and has its highest incidence rates in the country’s South.

However, one in three patients experienced serious adverse effects, primarily skin rash and diarrhea, although none discontinued treatment because of these events. 

Furthermore, the study was relatively small, lacked a control group for direct comparison, and was funded by Revolution Medicines, the company developing the drug.

Although still preliminary, these findings help strengthen the case for a new generation of KRAS-targeted therapies. Long considered “undruggable,” KRAS is now viewed as one of the most promising frontiers in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

O post Pancreatic cancer: Oral drug almost doubles survival in clinical trial apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

The study drew on cancer registry data from all 50 US states. To assess the influence of birth country, the researchers focused on 13 states with complete information on patients’ origins. In total, they identified 3,228 cases diagnosed between 2005 and 2022.

Among non-Hispanic Caribbean immigrants, the incidence reached 14.1 new cases per million people—comparable to rates reported in historically endemic regions such as Japan, sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of South America. The highest rate was observed among people born in Grenada, at 33.7 cases per million. By contrast, among individuals born in the United States and Canada, the incidence was just 0.4 cases per million. 

Racial disparities in survival rates

The five-year survival rate was calculated using data from New York and Florida—the only states with complete follow-up information—and averaged 23.8%. Survival varied substantially by race, ethnicity, and place of birth:

• Non-Hispanic Whites: 38.9% 
• Hispanics: 26.1% 
• US-born non-Hispanic Blacks: 19.6%
• Caribbean-born non-Hispanic Blacks: 14.5%

The disparity is not merely statistical. The analysis showed that non-Hispanic Black individuals born in the Caribbean face more than twice the risk of dying specifically from ATLL compared with non-Hispanic White individuals—a gap that persists even after accounting for factors such as age, gender, and disease subtype at diagnosis.

Latent virus, late cancer

ATLL almost always begins the same way: a baby becomes infected during breastfeeding by a mother carrying the virus. HTLV-1 invades the body’s immune cells and remains dormant there—silent and symptom-free—for four to five decades, gradually accumulating genetic damage that, in a small fraction of cases, ultimately leads to cancer.

The disease typically emerges between the ages of 50 and 60. Only 2% to 5% of infected individuals develop ATLL.

Among adults, the virus can also be transmitted through sexual contact or blood exposure, much like HIV. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends replacing breastfeeding with infant formula when maternal HTLV-1 infection has been confirmed. One important detail is that PrEP and other HIV-prevention strategies do not protect against HTLV-1, making maternal screening the only effective way to interrupt the chain of transmission that gives rise to the cancer.

Because it originates almost exclusively from infection acquired in early childhood, ATLL is, according to the authors, one of the few fundamentally preventable blood cancers. 

The hidden problem: misdiagnosis

The disease’s invisibility has a second dimension. ATLL is frequently mistaken for other types of T-cell cancer, particularly peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS), a category used when physicians are unable to identify a more specific subtype. The reason is straightforward: testing for HTLV-1 is not routinely performed when T-cell lymphoma is suspected, especially among patients from immigrant communities.

The researchers estimated the impact of this diagnostic confusion. After reclassifying cases likely to have been misdiagnosed, the incidence of ATLL among non-Hispanic Caribbean immigrants would rise from 14.1 to 22.7 cases per million—comparable to rates in southwestern Japan, historically the region most affected by the disease worldwide. Among people born in Grenada, the incidence could reach 59 cases per million, surpassing even that of Japan.

Japan as a prevention model

Japan has demonstrated that the disease can be reduced. For more than three decades, the country screened pregnant women for HTLV-1 and advised infected mothers not to breastfeed. The results took time to emerge, but they eventually did: starting in 2013, the number of new ATLL cases started to decline in Kagoshima, one of the regions most heavily affected by the disease.

The United States has yet to follow that path. HTLV-1 testing is performed only for blood donations, not as part of prenatal screening. The authors propose a practical alternative: rather than screening the entire population—which would likely be less cost-effective given the virus’s low overall prevalence in the country—they recommend focusing on mothers born in non-Hispanic Caribbean nations, where the risk is demonstrably high.

The need for action is urgent. Children infected during the 1990s and 2000s are now entering the age range at which ATLL typically develops. Without intervention, the number of cases is expected to continue rising.

Brazil: silent endemic

Brazil tests for HTLV-1 in blood donors and pregnant women, but coverage remains insufficient. The disease is likely more common than official figures suggest, simply because so few cases are ultimately diagnosed. An abstract presented at the 2025 Brazilian Congress of Hematology, based on data from Rio de Janeiro’s Gaffrée and Guinle University Hospital (HUGG/UNIRIO), identified only six confirmed cases of ATLL over a ten-year period at a referral outpatient clinic in the city. All of the patients were women, with a mean age of 58, and they survived an average of just 13 months after diagnosis—far worse than the 23.8% five-year survival rate reported in the United States, where the disease is at least more likely to be recognized.

High HTLV-1 prevalence has already been documented in regions with large Black populations,  such as Salvador, a pattern partly explained by the African ancestry of a portion of the population, as Central and West Africa have long been recognized as endemic regions for HTLV-1.

How Does HTLV-1 Cause ATLL?

O post Leukemia caused by a virus transmitted through breastfeeding could be prevented with maternal screening apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

The article Smokeless Tobacco and Oral Cancer in Global Perspective, published in the Perspective section of The New England Journal of Medicine in January 2026. The paper, written by Mark Parascandola (US National Cancer Institute); Suzanne T. Nethan (International Agency for Research on Cancer, France); and Kamran Siddiqi (Hull York Medical School, UK), issues a warning about the increased use of smokeless tobacco products, especially in Southeast Asia, directly correlating them with a rise in the number of cases of oral cancer.

WHY IS THIS ARTICLE RELEVANT?

The article examines the substantial contribution of smokeless tobacco to oral cancer incidence and mortality worldwide. This category encompasses a wide range of manufactured and/or custom-made products, including chewing tobacco, snuff, gutka, khaini, toombak, and iqmik.

Although these products are used by more than 360 million people—especially in low- and middle-income South Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan—they receive far less attention from scientists and public policy makers than smoked tobacco.

The article is important because it calls attention to a major global public health issue that remains underestimated: the impact of smokeless tobacco.

Based on epidemiological and clinical evidence, the authors show that a significant proportion of oral cancer cases worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, are associated with products often perceived as less harmful than regular cigarettes, a misconception that leads to continued use, as well as gaps in prevention, surveillance, and regulatory policies.

WHAT MAKES THIS ARTICLE A MUST-READ?

By highlighting regional inequalities, cultural barriers, and regulatory shortcomings, the article emphasizes that oral cancer associated with these products is largely preventable, provided greater priority is given to health communication and evidence-based regulatory actions.

It also presents concrete data on the scale of the problem:

• 389,846 new cases of oral cancer were recorded worldwide in 2022, with increased incidence in countries where the use of these products is common.
• Epidemiological estimates based on data from sources such as the Global Cancer Observatory suggest that approximately 120,200 oral cancer cases (roughly 30% of the total) in 2022 may have been attributable to the use of smokeless tobacco or areca nut, making it a critical and preventable risk factor.
• Most cases attributable to smokeless tobacco occurred in South-Central and Southeast Asia, reflecting regional patterns of use and risk.

These figures demonstrate the global magnitude of the problem addressed in the article: millions of users, hundreds of thousands of new oral cancer cases per year, a large proportion of which are directly attributable to a risk factor that, though preventable, has received insufficient attention in public health policies.

O post Ignored risk: NEJM issues warning about smokeless tobacco apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

The event is organized by the Brazilian community of students at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to debate the past, present, and future of Brazil.

Last year the conference celebrated 10 years, and Huck was invited to recount the stories of Brazilians he’d met in the US.

The researcher that impressed the presenter, and was cited during his talk in the Harvard auditorium, is Dr. Daniel Dahis.

“I came across Luciano Huck walking around the Harvard business school, filming a piece for his TV program, and executives from a pharmaceutical corporation that were accompanying me suggested he visit my laboratory,” recalls Dahis.

“He took out his cell phone, made a video with me for his stories, and posted it for 21 million people.”

Until then, Dahis didn’t have an open profile on Instagram—his posts were the same as any other normal user of the platform: travel, images of his birth city Rio de Janeiro, birthdays, friends, family, and his girlfriend (now his wife).

However, after the visibility generated by the video on Luciano Huck’s profile, Dahis rolled the dice and started to post short videos on the life and routine of a Brazilian researcher overseas.

Science with a Carioca accent

Speaking in his characteristic Carioca (Rio) accent, the 33-year-old biomedical engineer began by showcasing the laboratory where he works. He went on to talk about general interest themes such as health, science, and scientific research with the potential of improving life for the population.

In little more than a year he has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers—by June 2025, some 214,000 were following his profile.

More than 200 people signed up for the three-hour workshop.

As well as talking about science for a large audience on Instagram, the biomedical engineer is lead scientist at the startup Biodevek, formerly an incubated company in the Harvard ecosystem, which develops solutions to prevent internal bleeding.

“We are working with a biomaterial to treat internal injuries,” the researcher enthuses in the same way as he described to Huck and entrepreneurs last year.

In other words: “It’s like a sticking plaster to prevent internal bleeding.”

When the research process is concluded, the invention may help patients with ulcers, for example, or other conditions that can generate internal complications, and will also be used for minimally invasive procedures performed by colonoscopy or endoscopy, for example for the removal of a polyp or tumor, which can create the risk of internal bleeding.

Medicine without the white jacket

For a little more than three years, Dahis has been part of the Biodevek team, but his interest in the healthcare area was aroused way before. “Graduated” in medicine by watching the series House and Grey’s Anatomy, the teenage Daniel Dahis aspired to be a doctor like the characters he saw on TV.

When it came to decision time, however, he realized that he wanted to study medicine but not be a practicing physician. He saw his vocation as less in providing direct care to patients with a presence in the consulting room, and more backstage in health research.

It was a cousin of his that advised him to pursue the engineering area, and Dahis came into contact with the world of medical engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

He studied imaging technology for the detection of breast cancer and, during his master’s in biomedical engineering at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion), researched ultrasound methods for measuring brain temperature.

At that time aged 24, it was a crucial period for Dahis to develop his communication skills. “It was a lot of changes at the same time that prepared me on a cultural level,” says the researcher.

“I learned to master another language, I had Hebrew classes, so now I speak four languages,” he goes on.

A member of the Jewish community, Dahis says that his origins and participation in the Jewish youth movement during his life have influenced his career. “I always liked to take part, and being in a community requires you to interact with other people and be communicative; to care about others,” he reflects.

“A very present element of the Jewish culture is debate; it’s in our literature, our philosophy, so I think that my curiosity, my wanting to know, seeking answers, comes from that.”

From a master’s in Israel to a PhD at Harvard

Dahis left Israel for the US in 2020. His master’s at Technion was coming to an end when he watched a talk by a Harvard professor about cancer. “I put my phone down and started to pay attention; by the end of the talk I was asking if I could do my doctorate with her,” Dahis recalls.

Between 2019 and 2022 he researched imaging methods for the treatment and monitoring of tumors, most specifically the glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor. “It’s the most common and most aggressive in adults, and the prognosis is very bad,” says Dahis.

“Patients normally succumb within 20 months, even with more radical treatments,” he adds. “Immunotherapy doesn’t work yet, and 98% of medications don’t cross the blood-brain barrier, which protects the tumor from medications in the bloodstream—it’s a very difficult illness,” he says. The idea of his project was to use the (noninvasive) ultrasound method and nanotechnology to temporarily open this barrier around the tumor for localized treatment.

“Cancer was the reason it all started; I lost an uncle to lung cancer, my father had colorectal cancer, and there are estimates that one in every two men will have cancer at some stage in their lives. For women, the figure is one in three,” says Dahis.

“But it’s no longer a diagnosis with a death sentence as it used to be; it’s a serious illness, but with some treatment possibilities,” he confirms.

Cancer is also a recurring theme in his Instagram videos. “It’s a subject that has always scared and fascinated me at the same time.”

“My followers range from people with postdoctorates to teenagers, academics, and people interested in science and health, so I feel a certain responsibility for communicating science.”

As well as his Instagram activity, Dahis is currently writing a children’s book on cancer.

“I dealt with that situation in our family when I was 18, and my siblings were much younger,” Dahis recalls. “So I think communication is essential for any child to deal with that. Cancer is no longer the death sentence it used to be—and that’s good news. Removing stigmas and setting realistic perspectives on treatment can make a difference to a child’s life. We can’t avoid death, but we can learn to deal better with it.”

O post “Scientists need to speak social network language” apareceu primeiro em Science Arena.

Over the past twenty years, the development of personalized and targeted pharmacological inhibitors of these pathways has revolutionized oncological treatment.

A notable example is the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) cell signaling pathway, which regulates various processes and is frequently altered in tumors such as melanoma and colorectal cancer, for which drugs such as vemurafenib and cetuximab have proven effective, improving patient survival and managing cancer progression.

However, the outcomes of these treatments are often limited by the development of resistance by the tumor.

This resistance arises from the dynamic evolution of heterogeneous cancer cell populations, which interact with each other and with the tumor microenvironment.

Genetic heterogeneity promotes the selection of resistant cells, allowing for the emergence of secondary mutations that reactivate oncogenic pathways and compromise therapeutic success.

A counterintuitive response to this challenge has emerged: is it possible to induce cytotoxicity by increasing oncogenic signaling beyond the limit tolerated by cancer cells? Preclinical studies suggest it is.

The science of hyperactivation

Hyperactivation of oncogenic pathways can generate such intense cellular stress that the tumor cells are unable to survive.

The approach is based on the fact that cancer cells maintain pathway signaling at an “optimal” level, enough to sustain growth without causing cell collapse.

Disrupting this balance, whether via inhibition or hyperactivation, exposes vulnerabilities that can be exploited therapeutically.

These strategies have the potential to reduce tumor burden and restrict cancer growth, even in cases resistant to target-directed treatments.

When cells develop resistance to inhibitors, they often compensate with constant activation of the pathway, moving toward an upper signaling threshold.

Paradoxically, this adaptation creates a vulnerability: hyperactivation beyond this threshold triggers fatal cellular stress.

Therapies that exploit an alternating pattern between inhibition and hyperactivation can thus destabilize cancer cells, inducing cell death or contributing to the generation of less aggressive resistant clones.

Although the approach is promising, there are significant challenges yet to overcome. One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of drugs developed specifically to hyperactivate oncogenic pathways.

This limitation, however can be seen as an opportunity.

Drugs already approved for other objectives, such as tissue regeneration or protection, can be repositioned for this purpose.

Advances in the identification and development of new compounds also offer potential for the creation of a new class of drugs.

Innovative approach

Determining the exact thresholds for switching between inhibition and hyperactivation remains a growing field of study.

Identifying these thresholds is crucial to developing safe and effective clinical protocols.

Furthermore, the combination of approaches, including drug repositioning and development of new agents, could accelerate the progression of this strategy to clinical trials.

Exploring the upper and lower thresholds of cellular signaling not only challenges existing paradigms, it also offers new perspectives on treating resistant cancers, providing alternatives for patients with few therapeutic options.

This innovative approach thus has the potential to improve therapeutic interventions for cancer.

Julia Rezende da Silva is a PhD student on the Postgraduate Program in Pharmacy (Pathophysiology and Toxicology) at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of São Paulo, where she is studying genes involved in cancer progression and resistance. She did a supervised fellowship at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, United Kingdom, where she studied the hyperactivation of oncogenic pathways as a new therapeutic strategy for treating cancer.

Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of Science Arena or Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein.

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