Nancy Lee

Researchers have published the recipe for an artificial-intelligence model that reviews the scientific literature better than some major LLMs are able to, and gets the citations correct as often as human experts do go.nature.com/4r3fiEC

New @CellCellPress The hallmarks of cancer, refined from the original concepts 25 years ago, as an outgrowth of our expanding knowledge base cell.com/cell/fulltext/…

🙏 Thank you @ASCOPost for featuring our @Annals_Oncology paper "Machine learning reveals country-specific drivers of global cancer outcomes" led by @MilitSPatel 🔗 ascopost.com/news/january-2… @MSK_RadOnc @PCFnews

RNA-binding proteins and ribonucleoproteins as determinants of immunity dlvr.it/TQMKKq

Our review is highlighted by the cover of the current issue of @TrendsImmuno -The lingering shadow of epidemics: post-acute sequelae across history by Christine Miller and @jannamoen. Please read (open access)👇🏼 cell.com/trends/immunol…

RNA modification systems as therapeutic targets nature.com/articles/s4157… rdcu.be/eZdRG This Review in the January issue discusses the disease associations of proteins that regulate RNA modifications and advances in the development of therapeutic inhibitors

Decoding the spatial dynamics of tumor and immune cell interactions in solid cancers dlvr.it/TQN5M3

📜 In @Annals_Oncology led by @MilitSPatel, we present, "Machine learning reveals country-specific drivers of global cancer outcomes" 🌍🌎🌏 @MSKCancerCenter @TataMemorial @AKUHNairobi @UZH_en @UTSW_RadOnc @umiamimedicine @harvardmed @MedicalCollege 🔗 sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

📜 In @JAMANetworkOpen led by Asher Shin, we examine race/ethnicity differences in #nasopharynx #cancer subtypes in the #US 👉 Although #nonkeratinizing #NPC dominates, the burden of #keratinizing #NPC is often overlooked & should be further studied 🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41525077/

New research from MSK shows that bacteria inside tumors may limit the effectiveness of #immunotherapy. Targeting those bacteria could help more patients benefit. Learn more: bit.ly/4aJa6jT

@DavidSherMD I'm deeply skeptical that any of the microbes were really in the tumors, with the exception of HPV. The sequencing techniques (RNA-seq and exome) shouldn't have captured bacteria at all, so I suspect it's just contamination. Sorry to see Nature publishing this stuff

@DavidSherMD modifying this comment: these were throat-related tumors, so it's quite plausible that oral microbes were found on the tumors. A more difficult question is whether they were just transitory or were actually growing in/on the tumors

Two papers in @NatureCancer highlighting the role of intratumoral bacteria & associated immune architecture (e.g., neutrophil influx) in mediating resistance to immunotherapy in head & neck cancer. nature.com/articles/s4301… nature.com/articles/s4301… @GeneCollector @xrtGenomics

Both of these papers are a must-read. Well-written (so even non-scientists like myself can follow reasonably well), clear scientific method, and remarkable results. Bottom-line: high tumor bacterial burden (TBB) is strongly related to response to immune checkpoint blockade, with similar/complementary results in different trials and datasets. Higher TBB seems to drive a neutrophil/myeloid-heavy microenvironment that is immunosuppressive. The field has long posited that elective nodal irradiation and RT in general have been the key immune suppressors in non-metastatic trials, but these data are very compelling that the tumor microbiome is the (or one of the) critical drivers of response (as an example, check out the survival curves below). Amazing work. Bravo! (1/2)

@xrtGenomics @NatureCancer @nataliesilvermd @GeneCollector Congratulations Nadeem fantastic work!!

🥳🎆 Kicking of 2026 with our work showing intra-tumoral bacteria 🦠 affect outcomes of Radiotherapy + anti-PD-L1 now out in @NatureCancer with sister paper by @nataliesilvermd! Even when trials "fail" – we can learn from them! nature.com/articles/s4301…. -- w/ @GeneCollector, @imrtlee, @TylerAlban1, @DrHaddadRobert, the Pfizer team and more! (1/N)

Intratumoral bacteria are immunosuppressive and promote immunotherapy resistance in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma @nataliesilvermd @ClevelandClinic @MDAndersonNews nature.com/articles/s4301…

Tumor bacterial burden dictates immunotherapy fate in head & neck cancer (Preview @dspakowicz) nature.com/articles/s4301… @NatureCancer @GeneCollector @ClevelandClinic @imrtlee @MSKCancerCenter @xrtGenomics @pfizer @TylerAlban1 @DrHaddadRobert @DanaFarber nature.com/articles/s4301…

Totally agree. There wasn't any hint of late grade 5 toxicity in the Supplementary Table (S3), nor was there *any* dosimetric information provided in the paper to hypothesize about late aspiration events (such as DARS dose... and in fact the only aspiration event was in a proton patient). In principle, worse performance status at recurrence could prevent attempts at curative-intent therapy, but (a) we don't have information about salvage, (b) locoregional recurrence has in-field challenges regardless of modality, and (c) distant disease management isn't usually hindered by locoregional symptoms from prior CRT.

Now I would be remiss to say the skeptics (or haters? :-P )) cant be wrong. They famously were with the Al Sarraf study in NPC. IF the OS effect is real, we should have replication soon enough -- and this would be a gigantic win for our patients. I hope for their sake, I'm wrong , and we see this widely reproduced soon -- unfortunately though I think this is unlikely.