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Some Cancer Patients May Not Need Surgery After Immunotherapy
Surgery is a staple of early-stage cancer care, but select patients whose cancer responds to immunotherapy may not need to undergo an operation, according to a study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2025 in Chicago. While surgery is effective at removing cancer, it also comes with risks and potentially life-changing side effects. Researchers studied whether treating cancers with a mismatch repair deficiency, in which the cancer has trouble repairing errors in DNA, with immunotherapy could remove any sign of cancer and lead to a lasting response. Mismatch repair-deficient tumors are present in different types of cancer, though they are more common in certain diagnoses, including colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer and gastroesophageal cancers, according to a report in NBC News. The study enrolled 103 people, of whom 84 had a complete response to immunotherapy and 82 chose not to get surgery. All 49 participants with rectal cancer had a complete response, and of that group, 92% had no evidence of disease two years later. “Twenty or 30 years ago, the idea that you could take large tumors of many different organs and treat them without doing surgery would seem like science fiction,” Bert Vogelstein, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore, said in an article for the New York Times. But he noted that the movement toward the possibility of treatment without surgery has been built methodically over that time, starting with basic science research in the lab.
Read more about controlling cancer without surgery.
Cancer Treatment Side Effects Can Be Lessened With Exercise
A large review of clinical trial results found physical activity can reduce many side effects of cancer treatment, from heart effects to psychological well-being. The review, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, brought together randomized trial results from 2012 to 2024, including 80 studies and 485 exercise associations that it graded as moderate to high quality. Exercise was found to be associated with less peripheral neuropathy, better sleep quality, better indicators of health and less cognitive impairment—also called chemo brain or brain fog. Exercising before surgery was linked with fewer complications, less pain, shorter hospital stays and a lower risk of death. The findings further support recommendations that exercise can improve long-term health for cancer patients, said Celene Doherty, a specialist cancer information nurse at Cancer Research UK, who was not involved with the study. However, Doherty said in an article for the Guardian, pushing exercise on someone already dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatment can be overwhelming. “It’s important to take things at your own pace and do activities that are right for you,” Doherty said. She also encouraged cancer patients interested in support or more information to talk to their health care providers.
Women Are More Likely to Experience Fatigue and Depression After Cancer
Fatigue and depression are difficult conditions experienced by many people during and after cancer treatment, but the effects are not distributed equally. Women were 69% more likely to experience cancer-related fatigue and 58% more likely to experience depression related to cancer in findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2025 in Chicago. “Understandably, patients don’t want to just live, they want to live well. So, that’s really where this research helps to point us in the next direction,” Joseph Unger, a biostatistician and cancer researcher with the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle who was not involved in the study, said in an article for NBC News. The study also found people who experienced these conditions were less likely to engage in recreational activity, which could further exacerbate feelings of fatigue and depression. Why women were more likely to experience fatigue and depression wasn’t clear from the study, but researchers offered some possible explanations, from the extended use of hormonal therapies to stronger immune reactions, as well as social factors such as expectations that women will take the primary role in child care and household chores even during cancer treatment. The study found that for people who were able to continue physical activity, it could have a protective effect against both fatigue and depression. People who participated in moderate physical activity such as brisk walks or cycling had half the risk of developing fatigue as people who had no activity. And both vigorous and moderate activity were associated with lower depression, with people getting vigorous exercise having just one-fifth the risk for depression as people with no activity.
Read more about the findings on cancer-related fatigue and depression.
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