News archive

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found a molecule that can both help the intestines to heal after damage and suppress tumour growth in colorectal cancer. The discovery could lead to new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cancer. The results are published in the journal Nature.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated how well different AI models can predict the prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer by analysing certain immune cells inside the tumour. The study, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, is an important step towards using AI in cancer care to improve patient health.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) has published this year's 100 list of the most promising research projects from Sweden's colleges and universities. All applications to the list have been reviewed by IVA's expert group and the selected projects are considered to have great potential to benefit society. The list includes several projects involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

Congratulations to Linda Björkhem-Bergman and Erland Axelsson for their respective research grants!

The Swedish Cancer Society has decided on the research grants for 2024. Researchers from the Department of Oncology-Pathology at Karolinska Institutet received a total of over 70 million SEK.

In a recently published study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and KI University Hospital show that radiotherapy (RT) creates an "epigenetic memory" in skin fibroblasts which impairs skin healing in cancer survivors. They also found that by targeting this memory with antibodies the damage could be reversed. This finding can lead to new therapies for both preventing and treating RT-induced skin issues.

Thuy Tran's research group at Karolinska Institutet has been awarded SEK 8 million over three years from the Erling-Persson Foundation to develop a precision-orientated, theranostic, method that integrates the diagnosis and treatment of advanced, solid tumours.

Karin Holmsten at Karolinska Institutet has been awarded Pfizer’s and the Swedish Society for Urological Oncology’s (SFUO) newly established research grant for oncologists in urology. The grant of 50,000 SEK was awarded on October 17th at SFUO’s annual meeting in Stockholm.

Svenska Läkaresällskapet (the Swedish Medical Society, SLS) has decided to award Jana de Boniface, adjunct professor at Karolinska Institutet and senior physician and surgeon at the surgery and oncology clinic, Capio St. Göran's Hospital, with their prestigious Jubilee Prize. The awardee is rewarded with SEK 175,000 and the SLS century medal in silver.

Vinnova is investing in precision medicine and awarding grant funding to six innovation environments. Two of them are at Karolinska Institutet, and both focus on treating cancer. The aim of the grants is to fund efforts to bring greater precision to the diagnosis and treatment of common diseases.

Hi Katarina Holmberg, doctoral student at the Division of Nursing. On October 11 you will defend your thesis ”Symptom burden, preparedness, self-efficacy and self-care in allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation”. What is the main focus of the thesis?

Merkel cell carcinoma is an aggressive and often fatal form of skin cancer. Weng-Onn Lui intends to find out how the Merkel cell polyomavirus influences tumour growth and the development of treatment resistance. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 3 October.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet has made a significant breakthrough in the study of childhood neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that begins before birth during the early stages of adrenal gland development.

Cervical cancer is a major global health problem. It ranks as the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women, despite the disease being largely preventable. Now, researchers from Karolinska Institutet have received funding from the UICC to investigate how an HPV self-screening programme can be implemented in war-torn Ukraine.

The risk of skin cancer for adults under the age of 50 is now decreasing for the first time in Sweden, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Dermatology.

Prostate cancer accounts for more male deaths in Sweden than any other form of cancer. However, how the disease progresses and how fatal it is depend on the type of tumour. Olof Akre hopes to find better prognostic indicators that will help to personalise treatment. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 3 October.

Children who have undergone treatment for cancer often lose the protection against infection provided by previous vaccinations. Anna Nilsson is studying how cancer therapies affect the immune system in order to improve vaccination guidelines for these children. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 3 October.

Girls with mental illness or neurodevelopmental conditions are less likely than their peers to be vaccinated with the HPV vaccine that protects against future cervical cancer. This is according to a new registry study from Karolinska Institutet published in The Lancet Public Health.

Men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer should be treated primarily with second-generation hormone drugs, which offer better treatment response and longer life expectancy than chemotherapy. However, the effect depends on which mutations the patient’s tumour carries. This is shown by results from the ProBio study, led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings are published in Nature Medicine.

Personalized medicine is transforming cancer treatment by tailoring therapies to the genomic profile of each tumor. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is key to this approach, but its complexity and inconsistent reporting have been hurdles. A recent paper in Annals of Oncology introduces new guidelines to standardize NGS reports, aiding clinicians in making informed decisions and improving patient outcomes.

Thomas Helleday, Professor of Chemical Biology at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, is awarded the 2024 Anders Jahre Award for Medical Research. He receives the prestigious Senior Jahre Award for his discoveries of mechanisms for cancer development in humans, which have been applied in the follow-up and treatment of patients.

The Stockholm3 blood test, developed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, is equally effective at detecting prostate cancer in different ethnic groups, a new paper published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology reports. The test produces significantly better results than the current PSA standard.

Researchers at the Center for Infectious Medicine at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge have developed a new strategy that can make cell therapy against cancer work longer in patients. The results are published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed nanorobots that kill cancer cells in mice. The robot’s weapon is hidden in a nanostructure and is exposed only in the tumour microenvironment, sparing healthy cells. The study is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows that 45 genes may play a crucial role in the prognosis of patients with adrenal cancer. The findings, published in the journal ESMO Open, give hope for a better diagnostic tool than is currently available.

Welcome to a SDU - KI joint symposia on structural biology and cancer research
Monday 17 June at 10.15 - 17.00 at BioClinicum J3:14, Kerstin Hagenfelt Auditorium
No registration needed. Coffe/tea and lunch is served.

On June 3rd, the Theranostics Trial Center (TTC) was inaugurated as a new section within the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Hospital Physics, Medical Diagnostics Karolinska (MDK) with an academic base within the Department of Oncology-Pathology at Karolinska Institutet.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Innsbruck have developed a simpler and more effective screening method for cervical cancer than the method used today. A comprehensive study published in Nature Medicine shows that the test detects significantly more cancers and precancerous stages.

Researchers from the Clinical Genetics Group at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, have set up a collaboration with the Centre for Research and Technology in Greece to make publicly available resources in biology and cancer more accessible to the research community. The teams are developing a first-of-its-kind cancer knowledge graph, as part of the SciLake Project involving partners across Europe.

Together with researchers from University of Oxford, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have demonstrated that a subclass of stem cells that are dedicated to the production of platelets replenish platelets through a distinct and shorter pathway than other stem cells. This is presented in a study published in the journal Nature Immunology.

Society's preparedness to deal with crises and disasters needs to be constantly developed and adapted to changes in the world around us. As preparedness depends on up-to-date medical expertise, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has established a number of knowledge and research centres for crisis preparedness around the country, located at universities, authorities or equivalent with links to clinical activities.

Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital are launching another tripartite collaboration, this time with Elekta. The aim is to join forces in the field of cancer with a focus on radiation therapy and precision medicine.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have succeeded in delivering targeted cancer treatment via small membrane bubbles that our cells use to communicate. A new study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering shows that the treatment reduces tumour growth and improves survival in mice.

In an article published in Nature, researchers from Karolinska Institutet present an atlas of the early development of the brain. The atlas can be used, among other things, to find out what went wrong in the development of brain tumors in children and also to find new treatments.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité) have entered into a bilateral agreement. The Internationalisation Board at KI is pleased to announce the availability of limited competitive funds for KI faculty and staff for grant applications to strengthen collaborative interactions within research and education.

The 2024 Karolinska Comprehensive Cancer Centre Day draw a large number of experts in the field of cancer research from KI and Karolinska University Hospital. The theme this year was prevention, with particular attention directed to scientific advances and remaining challenges, as well as to how involving patients in prevention enhances quality of care.

Angelique has a background in KI, where she obtained her medical degree, her path has been paved through many years of clinical service at Karolinska University Hospital and she is a specialist in both gynecology & obstetrics and gyneoncology.

For 2 years the Translational Seed Funding Grant 2023 will support the collaborative project between the Schulte lab at Fyfa and the research team of Prof Matthias Löhr at CLINTEC.

Drugs known as GLP-1 analogues have become increasingly popular to treat diabetes and obesity, but there have been concerns that they might increase the risk of thyroid cancer. Now an extensive Scandinavian study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet has found no evidence of such a link. The study is published in The BMJ.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund (Barncancerfonden) has decided to grant funding to eight research positions at KI for paediatric oncology research over the next two to six years. The goal is, among other things, to improve current treatment methods with the help of precision medicine that is based on the characteristics of the cancer and the individual child's genetics.

It is possible to leave most of the lymph nodes in the armpit, even if one or two of them have metastases larger than two millimetres. This is shown in a trial enrolling women from five countries, led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results open up for gentler surgery for patients with breast cancer.

In a new study published in Molecular Oncology, researchers have discovered a novel mechanism to enhance the body’s immune response to tumors. The study is a result of collaboration between Sprint Bioscience, Karolinska institutet, the Luxembourg Institute of Health and Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, and was included as a manuscript in Yasmin Yu’s PhD thesis at the Department of Oncology-Pathology in 2021.

Catherine J. Wu, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, USA, is a pioneer in research that may result in the development of personalised vaccines to treat cancer. She is now awarded the Sjöberg Prize, worth one million US dollars, for her work. Catherine J. Wu will give a lecture in Aula Medica at KI on April 12 in connection with the Karolinska CCC Day.

Ullakarin Nyberg is a researcher at the Center for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet. She also works clinically as a psychiatrist, part of the time at a unit for breast cancer patients. At the end of 2018, she contracted the disease herself.

Can breast cancer patients who exercise get better results from their chemotherapy? And if so, should they receive treatment that includes exercise? This will be investigated in an international study led by researcher Jana de Boniface.

It is difficult to draw firm conclusions about how to eat and drink to avoid breast cancer. Dietary studies often rely on self-reporting, while dietary habits change over the course of a lifetime - both of which are complicated for researchers. But one link is well documented: even moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing the disease, says Professor Alicja Wolk.

There is a lot going on in breast cancer research. A new AI tool is trying to fine-tune the screening program, another is helping pathologists make diagnoses, and new drugs are being tested and approved. This could save more lives. But there is still no answer to the trickiest question of all: Why does breast cancer occur?

In a recently published review in the journal Biomarker Research, Joanna Zawacka, Docent at the department of Oncology-Pathology discusses our current understanding of p53 biology in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Sweden and the USA have previously enjoyed strong collaboration in the field of cancer care and research, and now it is further strengthened through a bilateral agreement. The purpose is to promote exchange between the two countries in both cancer research and the implementation of this research within cancer care, including both prevention and improved quality of life.

In recent years, the treatment landscape for solid tumors has undergone a notable change. With new cancer treatments, the future looks brighter for many young cancer patients, making fertility issues and future family planning an important aspect. Six specialists in oncology and onco-fertility at the Department of Oncology-Pathology join forces to compile knowledge and recommendations on this important issue.