Cancer is a large group of diseases that can start in almost any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably, and go beyond their usual boundaries to invade adjoining parts of the body. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is the second most common cause of death globally, accounting for millions of deaths every year. Lung, prostate, colorectal, stomach and liver cancer are the most common types of cancer in men, while breast, colorectal, lung, cervical and thyroid cancer are the most common among women. However, these are not necessarily the deadliest forms of cancer.

What makes cancer the deadliest depends upon how many people have it and what percentage of those people actually survive. Cancer researchers determine this on the basis of five-year relative survival. This is the percentage of people who are expected to survive the effects of a given cancer, excluding their risk of other possible causes of death, for five years past a diagnosis. It is also important to note that what makes cancer really deadly is that practically no cure for it. A cure for cancer would imply that there are no cancerous cells remaining in the body.

Here are the 5 deadliest cancers in the U.S., according to SEER five-year relative survival data for cases diagnosed between 2014 and 2020.

1. Pancreatic cancer occurs when cells in your pancreas, a gland in your abdomen that aids digestion, mutate and multiply out of control, forming a tumour. Major risk factors include smoking, obesity, diabetes, chronic pancreatitis, certain genetic mutations and environmental chemical exposure.

2. Esophageal cancer develops in the oesophagus, which is the tube that connects your throat to your stomach.

3. Liver cancer and intrahepatic bile duct cancer originate in the liver or bile ducts, often linked to hepatitis infections, heavy alcohol use, obesity, and aflatoxin exposure.

4. Lung and bronchus cancer primarily caused by smoking, secondhand smoke, and environmental pollutants, affects the lungs and airways, making it the leading cause of cancer death in the US.

5. Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive blood and bone marrow cancer that progresses rapidly, often linked to genetic mutations, radiation exposure, and certain chemicals.

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Researchers in the Netherlands are exploring a possibility to reach into remote, difficult areas in the brain without an open surgery. They have developed a tiny, screw-shaped robot that can move through brain tissue under the control of a magnet placed outside the body.

The method is yet to be tested on humans. They used sheep brain tissue, including a model in which blood was pumped through the brain's vessels to more closely mimic a living brain.

In laboratory experiments, the robot successfully travelled through real sheep brain tissue, offering an early glimpse of a less invasive way to reach areas that are difficult to access with conventional surgery.

The technology could eventually be useful to treat deep brain tumours, blood clots following stroke and vascular abnormalities.

How Does The Tiny Robot Work?

Scientists have made the robot in a spiral, screw-like shape. It does not have a conventional motor inside it. Instead, researchers control it using a rotating magnetic field generated outside the body. As the magnet rotates, the robot moves with it. Its screw-shaped body converts that rotation into forward movement, allowing it to drill its way through soft brain tissue.

The researchers also created a mathematical model to predict when the robot could lose synchronisation with the magnetic field. Simply making the magnet spin faster does not mean the robot will keep moving faster.

“Push a magnetic robot too fast and it simply stops listening to the magnet,” said Ewout Ligtenberg, first author of the study. He added, “We can now predict exactly when that happens, for any tissue, from a single test. That takes out a lot of guesswork when designing robots for the brain.”

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Navigating Inside A Brain Is Not Easy

One of the biggest challenges of brain surgery is that is that brain tissue is soft, delicate and mechanically complex. The researchers initially tested their robot in gelatin before moving to actual sheep brain tissue.

In the sheep tissue, the robot remained synchronised with the magnetic field up to about 1.8 rotations per second when there was no blood flow. But once blood was pumped through the vessels, it fell to below 0.45 rotations per second. In other words, making the conditions that resemble a living brain made the robot harder to control.

The robot moved through the brain tissue at around 0.2 millimetres per second. When researchers reversed it, it was able to travel back through the pathway it had already created much faster, at about 2.9 millimetres per second.

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This May Help With Brain Lesions

The technology may have applications in treating brain lesions as some lesions sit deep inside the brain, where reaching them can mean passing through healthy tissue or opening the skull.

The researchers are look for a futuristic approach in which the tiny robot could potentially be guided through blood vessels to a location near the target, pass through the artery wall and then travel through brain tissue towards the lesion.

The robot has not been used to treat a brain tumour, remove a clot or operate on a person. Despite promising outcome, there are still major questions around safety, navigation, bleeding, tissue damage.

India has the medical expertise and infrastructure to perform significantly more corneal transplants, but a shortage of suitable donor corneas continues to leave thousands of patients waiting for treatment.

While an estimated 1 lakh corneal transplants are needed annually, only 25,000–30,000 are performed, meeting just 25–30% of the estimated need, said health experts as part of the 41st National Eye Donation Fortnight.

The shortage is also reflected in the availability of suitable donor tissue. In 2023–24, more than 49,000 corneas were retrieved in India, but only around 27,394 were considered suitable for transplantation.

Why Corneal Transplants Matter

Corneal blindness is a significant cause of treatable vision loss in India. “There is too much burden of corneal blindness in India, which is a leading cause of treatable blindness. Almost 1.1 to 1.3 million people are affected because of this corneal blindness,” said Dr Anita Gangar, Consultant Corneal Transplant Surgeon, Eye Department, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, in a video posted on X.

The cornea is the transparent front surface of the eye that allows light to enter. When it becomes damaged, scarred or opaque, vision can be severely affected.

A corneal transplant replaces the damaged cornea with clear donor tissue, helping restore the eye’s optical pathway and vision.

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Common Causes of Corneal Blindness

• Corneal infections
• Eye trauma
• Surgery-related complications
• Hereditary conditions

Why Timely Eye Donation Matters

The availability of donor tissue remains a major constraint despite advances in corneal surgery.

“Corneal blindness is among the significant causes of vision loss that can potentially be treated through transplantation, yet thousands of patients continue to face a long and uncertain wait for suitable donor tissue,” said Padma Shri Prof. Dr Jeevan Titiyal, Regional Head – Clinical Services, Dr Agarwals Eye Hospital, at a press conference held in New Delhi.

The experts added that increasing eye donation requires not only greater public awareness but also stronger retrieval systems, efficient eye-bank networks and better coordination between hospitals and eye banks.

Timely retrieval is particularly important for preserving donor corneal tissue. Families are encouraged to contact an eye bank as soon as possible after the death of a loved one, with retrieval generally targeted within approximately six hours under appropriate conditions.

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Eye Donation: Myths vs Facts

Myth: Diabetes or high blood pressure prevents eye donation.

Fact: These conditions do not automatically rule out donation. The medical team assesses tissue suitability after death.

Myth: Eye donation will disfigure the face.

Fact: Corneal retrieval is performed respectfully by trained professionals and does not cause visible facial disfigurement.

Myth: People who wear spectacles cannot donate their eyes.

Fact: Wearing spectacles or contact lenses does not automatically prevent donation. Eligibility is determined after death.

Myth: Only young people can donate.

Fact: People of different ages may be eligible, depending on the suitability of the donated tissue.

Advances in Corneal Transplantation

Corneal transplantation has evolved from conventional full-thickness procedures to more selective, layer-specific techniques. In suitable cases, surgeons can replace only the affected portion of the cornea, allowing for more targeted treatment and faster visual rehabilitation.

“Advances in corneal surgery now allow us to treat specific layers of the cornea, offering more targeted treatment and faster visual rehabilitation for appropriately selected patients. However, these advances can translate into better outcomes only when suitable donor tissue is available,” said Dr Prabjot Kaur, Senior Consultant Ophthalmologist, Dr Agarwals Eye Hospital.

41st National Eye Donation Fortnight

The 41st National Eye Donation Fortnight is being observed from 25 August to 8 September 2026. The 15-day nationwide awareness campaign, observed in India since 1985, aims to encourage eye donation and help bridge the gap between the demand for and availability of donor corneas.

Triple-negative breast cancer is notorious as it can respond to chemotherapy initially, only for some cancer cells to adapt, survive and eventually become resistant to treatment. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Hollings Cancer Center may have found a way to turn that against the tumour's nature.

In a new study published in Cell Reports Medicine, scientists used a two-step drug strategy that first weakened drug-resistant cancer cells and then blocked the backup system they turned to for survival.

Marking a breakthrough, the combination significantly slowed tumour growth in several models of triple-negative breast cancer, including the ones made from patients whose tumours had stopped responding to chemotherapy treatment.

An important thing to note is that this is still laboratory and preclinical research and not a treatment that is readily available to patients.

How Does The Two-Step Drug Strategy Work?

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First Step:

The researchers mainly focused on a protein called lysyl oxidase, or LOX. LOX has always been studied for its role outside cancer cells, where it can make it easier for cancer to spread by altering the tissue around the tumour.

But the research team found that LOX has another job inside triple-negative breast cancer cells. It helps them produce energy, maintain healthy mitochondria and cope with cellular stress. Blocking LOX therefore cancer cells from spreading.

Burge Ulukan, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow and co-first author of the study, “LOX helps cancer cells keep multiple survival systems running. When we blocked LOX, the cancer cells lost that advantage." He added, “When we inhibit it, we are inhibiting multiple arms. We're disrupting cells' energy production and making them much more vulnerable to treatment.”

But the researchers observed that the instead of simply dying, the cancer cells adapted again after LOX was blocked.

Second Step:

Also read:

The next step in the strategy is blocking the cancer's backup route. Once LOX was blocked, the cancer cells became increasingly dependent on another protein called DHODH, which gave the scientists with an even better second target.

They paired an experimental drug used to block LOX with leflunomide, an FDA-approved drug that blocks DHODH. Together, the drugs pushed the cancer cells towards ferroptosis, a form of cell death caused by damaging molecules building up inside the cell.

The combination significantly blocked tumour growth across several models and performed better than the LOX inhibitor combined with standard chemotherapy. The researchers reported no major weight loss or signs of kidney or liver toxicity in the models tested.

Ozgur Sahin, PhD, co-leader of the Hollings Cancer Biology and Immunology Research Program, described the strategy as, “It's a one-two-punch approach. First, we block LOX, which weakens the cancer cells. As they adapt and become dependent on a backup survival pathway, we deliver the second punch by blocking that pathway, too.”

Why Triple-Negative Breast Cancers Are Challenging To Treat?

Triple-negative breast cancer gets its name as its cells lack three common treatment targets: oestrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and HER2. This leaves doctors with fewer targeted treatment options than they have for some other breast cancers.

Chemotherapy remains an important treatment, but resistance can develop quickly. Sahin said, “Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive, deadliest versions of breast cancer. Chemotherapy is really the mainstay, and interestingly, this subtype is sensitive to chemotherapy compared to others, but resistance develops quite quickly.”

Till now, the findings have been demonstrated in labs and preclinical models. The researchers are now developing a newer version of their drug to trap LOX to prepare for human testing.