Stinkin’ cancer outsmarts us so often. We hope if we slash, poison, burn and now make ourselves immune to its evil, we will gain the upper hand. Aaah to be so naive. All the while, it finds ways to make fools of us. Thank goodness, scientists never stop searching, never take a break and more brilliance is going to impact our future.

At Rush in Chicago scientists are developing a blood test to detect more than 50 cancers. Finally, an end to the endless CT scans now proven this month to cause 5% of new cancers.

JCO (Journal of Clinical Oncology) this week explored the critical gut microbiome (stomach) and found a relationship between high fiber and lower risk of skin cancer (who would think?). It is called the DIET trial and for patients with melanoma undergoing immune-therapy, hi fiber led to better response to treatment.

JCO Precision Oncology published the first large scale study to identify molecular markers associated with prolonged immune therapy response in glioblastoma brain cancer patients. Patients who have molecular marker CDK4 were more likely to benefit from bevacizumab (Avastin), blocks blood flow to tumors, with increased progression free survival.

With one in five men developing prostate cancer, Decipher Prostate ( a 22 gene classifier) is now used in the clinic and validated in over 200,000 patients. The genomic test is helping physicians predict metastasis, prostate-specific mortality and overall survival for this common disease.

Our “bag of tricks” just got trickier! Immune therapy is often mentioned here as the new addition to our regimens. The National Center of Nanoscience and Technology (China) found a physical barrier that blocks T cell–tumor interactions allowing the T cells to accumulate to give a more sustained immune response.

Johns Hopkins scientists found enzyme waves, challenging what we learned in biochem. High grade breast, liver, pancreatic, lung and colon cancers demonstrated fast pulsing, brighter waves (visualized under confocal microscope). They tagged key enzymes in glycolosis with a fluorescent marker. They found that energy doesn’t just churn inside cells, but ripples across the membrane in bands, developing fresh ATP where the cancer cell needs it. No wonder cancer can outsmart us.

These are just a few new developments this month at microcellular levels that are all conspiring to help you and your loved ones succeed in the cancer journey. As we head into hot, steamy August (already!) let’s thank our brilliant scientists who are so devoted and entranced by their discoveries that they probably rarely spend a day at the beach. Happy Vacation.