The hottest Oncology Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Health & Wellness Topics

The Missing CHIP

Ground Truths • 8223 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26
🔬 Science Oncology
  1. CHIP (clonal hematopoiesis) is a common, age-related blood stem cell change that meaningfully raises risk for heart disease, blood cancers, clots, and inflammatory problems, with risk depending on clone size and the specific mutated gene.
  2. New research shows CHIP is actionable: drugs like low‑dose colchicine, IL‑1β blockers, inflammasome inhibitors, and other agents can reduce CHIP or its downstream risks, and genetic discoveries point to future prevention strategies.
  3. Testing for CHIP is highly informative but currently limited by high cost, complex deep‑sequencing methods, and slow guideline uptake, so cheaper targeted assays and more clinical programs could enable screening and early prevention for older adults.

Going Founder Mode On Cancer

The Century of Biology • 2387 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26
🔬 Science Oncology
  1. A founder‑mode, information‑maximalist approach — exhaustive documentation, frequent advanced diagnostics, and a ladder of personalized treatment options — can enable faster, creative decisions and in this case helped drive the cancer into remission.
  2. Even with money and motivation, practical barriers in hospitals, IRBs, regulators, and the high cost of drug development make access to tissue, cutting‑edge diagnostics, and experimental therapies very hard to obtain and scale.
  3. Emerging platform technologies like single‑cell sequencing, neoantigen vaccines, radioligand therapies, personalized CRISPR and engineered cell therapies make truly individualized cancer care possible, but today they’re expensive and unevenly distributed and will need new regulatory and manufacturing models to become broadly available.

Syndex Bio/Ultima

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
🔬 Science Oncology
  1. Syndex Bio’s mcPCR can copy both DNA sequence and methylation marks during amplification, effectively enabling ‘PCR for methylation’. This should improve testing of small or non‑invasive oncology samples for earlier detection and recurrence monitoring.
  2. Ultima Genomics launched a cheaper (~$850K) second instrument (ug200) that removes a separate ePCR step and doubles output per wafer, boosting throughput and lowering cost. It still appears bead‑based on unpatterned wafers, which suggests there’s further density headroom if they optimize wafer/flowcell design.
  3. The bigger risk for Ultima is commercial: they need to find enough customers to absorb the massive throughput and drive the hyper‑elastic growth required for the business to survive. Capacity and performance may be strong, but market adoption is the key bottleneck.

Sneaky AI chess, cancer cell deception, & plant ballistic strategies

The Strategy Toolkit • 26 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🔬 Science Oncology
  1. AI systems can be tricked into accepting false rule changes and making illegal moves, highlighting real vulnerability to deception.
  2. Public AI competitions on social media turn technical failures into vivid, easy-to-follow lessons about strategic behavior.
  3. Watching AI-versus-AI interactions gives strategists practical insights into trust, adversarial tactics, and how to build more robust systems.
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10X @ JPM

ASeq Newsletter • 29 implied HN points • 13 Jan 26
💰 Finance Oncology
  1. 10X presented at JPM after releasing preliminary full‑year results, and Serge’s clear, confident presentation showed a strong command of the company’s technology and market which made the talk engaging.
  2. They emphasized potential clinical growth; if clinical revenue expands strongly it would be a positive development and could push the business toward a mostly clinical market like Illumina.
  3. Oncology was flagged as an important clinical area of focus.

My Friend Got Breast Cancer

Hard Pivot • 58 implied HN points • 14 Mar 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Oncology
  1. The author's friend was diagnosed with breast cancer.
  2. The author explored oncology telemedicine in Costa Rica as an option for a second opinion.
  3. The experience highlighted benefits like quick access to a doctor, responsive customer support, and price transparency in medical tourism.

We’re Not Curing Cancer Here, Guys

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 204 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🏥 Health Politics Oncology
  1. Transparency of raw data in medical research is crucial to uncovering fraud, as many papers only present summaries hiding potential malpractice.
  2. In medical research, the data presented in scientific papers is akin to a curated dating profile, showing only a portion of the actual work done.
  3. Calls for greater transparency, such as making all raw data available when publishing medical research, are crucial to combat fraud and encourage accountability in the field.