Prostate cancer: AI should help to avoid unnecessary biopsies

08-Aug-2024 - For which men is a biopsy necessary to confirm or rule out suspected prostate cancer if the PSA value is elevated? In a retrospective study, scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Department of Urology at Heidelberg University Hospital have shown that the combination of ...

AI-supported image analysis: metrics determine quality

New online tool helps to select the right algorithm

14-Feb-2024 - How well do the algorithms used in the AI-supported analysis of medical images perform their respective tasks? This depends to a large extent on the metrics used to evaluate their performance. An international consortium led by scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the ...

AI-based support system for skin cancer diagnostics explains its decisions

The explanations increased doctors' confidence in the machine's decisions - as well as in their own diagnoses

19-Jan-2024 - Artificial intelligence (AI) can help dermatologists to detect skin cancer. However, many dermatologists distrust the algorithms' decisions, which they cannot comprehend. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have now developed an AI-based support system for skin cancer diagnostics that ...

A protein on cancer cells supports immune response against tumors

Surprising discovery

19-Sep-2023 - Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) identify a new and surprising function of a membrane protein on the surface of cancer cells: It supports and stabilizes an important "co-stimulatory" factor that enhances the activation of T cells, thus improving the immune response against ...

New Molecular Microscopy Uncovers how Breast Cancer Spreads

"The exciting thing about this technology is that for the first time, we can see how the environment shapes cancer evolution"

11-Nov-2022 - Researchers have created a tool that maps how breast cancer grows in previously unseen detail, and highlights how the cells around the tumour may be the key to controlling the spread of disease. The new technology can trace which populations of breast cancer cells are responsible for the spread ...

Cancer DNA in the blood: an early warning system for recurrent tumors in children

Cell-free tumor DNA can be detected early in liquid biopsies

18-Mar-2022 - Neuroblastomas release DNA fragments into the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of patients. These genetic material can indicate a possible disease recurrence at an early stage. It also provides information about changes in certain cancer-driving genes. This is what scientists from the German ...

New single-cell analysis of leucemic stem cells

New method to distinguish between cancer stem cells, mature cancer cells and healthy tissue stem cells

23-Mar-2021 - A new method allows stem cells and cancer stem cells to be studied at the single cell level and the resulting cell clones to be traced directly. The method was developed by scientists from the Stem Cell Institute HI-STEM, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the European Molecular Biology ...

Using mini colons to detect functional differences and weaknesses of colorectal cancer

Pooled in vitro and in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 screening identifies tumor suppressors in human colon organoids

07-May-2020 - One of the main features of colorectal cancer is that there are considerable differences between the tumors of individual patients - at genetic level and hence in terms of the response to treatment too. Researchers from the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) have developed a method that allows these ...

Using oxygen to make cancer visible

20-Feb-2020 - Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center have developed a new method that uses oxygen to identify brain tumors more effectively by magnetic resonance tomography (MRT). To do so, they rely on a metabolic feature of the tumor cells that they can make visible using a completely new imaging ...

Protein content as a marker for response to therapy in brain cancer

Look into the future in fact seems possible

06-Mar-2019 - Brain tumors vary widely in how they respond to treatment. However, early assessment of therapy response is essential in order to choose the best possible treatment for the patient. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now been able to show in a study using non-invasive ...