Editors’ Selections from Relevant Scientific Publications

Alcohol consumption and risk of young-onset pancreatic cancer (Created using ChatGPT)A recent study reported a significant association between heavy alcohol consumption and risk of young-onset pancreatic cancer. In a nationwide Korean cohort study of 6.26 million individuals aged 20 to 39 who underwent health screening between 2009 and 2012 and were followed through 2020, Park and colleagues identified 1,515 cases of young-onset pancreatic cancer. Risk was significantly elevated among heavy drinkers (≥30 g/day for men and ≥16 g/day for women), with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.19 (95% CI, 1.004–1.42), whereas light-to-moderate consumption was not associated with risk (aHR 1.04; 95% CI, 0.92–1.17). Drinking alcohol at least 3 times per week was also associated with higher risk (aHR 1.23; 95% CI, 1.01–1.51). No significant interactions were observed with age, sex, obesity, smoking status, diabetes, or pancreatitis, but a significant interaction was observed for physical activity (P = 0.011). The findings indicate a threshold effect of heavy drinking and underscore the importance of reducing heavy alcohol use among young adults.Park JH, … Lim HY. J Clin Oncol. 2026 Jan 23:JCO2501169.Cancer screening based on individual risk prediction (created using Gemini)Recent evidence supports individualized, risk-based cancer screening across disease sites. In the WISDOM randomized clinical trial of 28,372 participants, Esserman and colleagues demonstrated that risk-based breast cancer screening was noninferior to annual mammography for detecting advanced cancers, while also reducing screening intensity among low-risk women and focusing resources on those at higher risk. Notably, most participants (89% in the observational cohort) preferred risk-based screening. Similarly, in the HANSE prospective cohort study of 5,191 participants, Vogel-Claussen and colleagues found that lung cancer screening eligibility based on the PLCOm2012 multivariable risk prediction model outperformed traditional age- and smoking-based NELSON criteria by achieving a higher cancer detection rate (2.59% vs. 2.17%) and a lower number needed to screen (38.6 vs. 46.1). Together, these studies illustrate how precision risk stratification can modernize population screening by aligning screening strategies with individual risk to improve both effectiveness, efficiency, and real-world implementation.Esserman LJ, … Eklund M. JAMA. 2025 Dec 12:e2524784.Vogel-Claussen, … HANSE investigators. Lancet Oncol. 2025 Dec;26(12):1541–-1551.Integrated tool to enhance lung cancer screening (created using Gemini)A new study evaluated strategies to enhance lung cancer screening (LCS) delivery. Kukhareva and colleagues conducted a pragmatic, unstratified, randomized clinical trial of 32,303 participants aged 50 to 79 across two academic health systems to test whether adding the patient-facing, electronic health record–integrated MyLungHealth tool (which was designed to collect detailed smoking history and deliver personalized education via the patient portal) to the clinician-facing Decision Precision+ clinical decision support system could improve identification of LCS eligibility and ordering of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). In study 1, which enrolled 26,729 participants with uncertain LCS eligibility, inclusion of MyLungHealth increased identification of eligible individuals (4.7% vs 2.3% with Decision Precision+ alone). In study 2, which enrolled 4,574 participants with documented eligibility, the combined tools led to more LDCT orders than Decision Precision+ alone (20.5% vs. 19.2%). Although absolute increases were modest and further study is warranted, these findings suggest that integrating patient-facing decision support into primary care workflows may facilitate LCS implementation.Kukhareva PV, … Kawamoto K. JAMA Oncol. 2025 Dec 26:e255672.Nous-209 elicits neoantigen-specific T cell responses (by D’Alise via Nat Med)A neoantigen vaccine was shown to be safe and immunogenic for cancer interception in Lynch syndrome (LS) carriers. In a single-arm phase 1b/2 trial of cohort 1 participants with LS (n = 45), D’Alise and colleagues evaluated Nous-209, a heterologous prime-boost cancer vaccine using viral vectors encoding 209 shared neoantigen peptides derived from frameshift mutations commonly found in microsatellite-instability neoplasms that patients with LS often develop. Vaccination was well tolerated, with no intervention-related serious adverse events and mainly injection-site reactions and fatigue. All evaluable participants (n = 37) exhibited neoantigen-specific T-cell responses with robust CD4+ and CD8+ activation, which were detectable at one year in 85% of participants. More than 100 immunogenic frameshift peptides were identified, 82% of which were also present in independent LS precancers and cancers and some demonstrated cytotoxic activity against a colon cancer cell line. These findings indicate that Nous-209 can reliably elicit broad, sustained antitumor immune responses in individuals at high genetic risk, highlighting its potential as a next-generation strategy for cancer interception.D'Alise AM, … Vilar E. Nat Med. 2026 Jan 16.