Turkish Nobel laureate posts glioblastoma results
- A Turkish Nobel laureate posted that EdU plus temozolomide eliminated glioblastoma tumors in mice, with the study update shared on X today. - All treated mice survived beyond 250 days with no detectable tumors, the post said, summarizing the experimental outcome from the lab today. - The social thread summarizing multiple cancer advances was posted within the last 48 hours on X. (x.com)
Aziz Sancar, the Turkish-American Nobel laureate at the University of North Carolina, amplified fresh glioblastoma data on May 23 after a social-media thread highlighted results from his lab’s recent mouse study of EdU plus temozolomide. The underlying work is real and peer-reviewed: a 2026 PNAS paper from Sancar and collaborators reported that the combination outperformed either drug alone across glioblastoma cell lines, three orthotopic mouse xenograft models and patient tumor tissue grown in brain-slice culture. (med.unc.edu) The key claim in the X discussion is that EdU plus temozolomide “eliminated” tumors in mice and pushed all treated animals past 250 days with no detectable disease. I could verify the existence of the post and the paper it appears to summarize, but not that exact 250-day language from a directly accessible primary-source page. What is confirmed is narrower: UNC’s December 31, 2025 summary of the paper said the combination delivered “significantly” better antitumor efficacy than either single agent in preclinical glioblastoma mouse models and produced long-term survival in a subset of models. (med.unc.edu) The biology behind the result has been building for several years. EdU, or 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine, is a common laboratory DNA-labeling molecule rather than an approved cancer drug. Sancar’s group reported in 2022 that human cells recognize EdU as DNA damage, triggering a repair process that can become lethal to affected cells, especially fast-dividing cancer cells. UNC said at the time that the finding justified further work on EdU’s anticancer potential, particularly in brain cancers. (unc.edu) Glioblastoma is a logical target because treatment options remain limited. The PNAS paper said standard care still centers on surgery, radiation and temozolomide, and that median survival is about 12 months. UNC’s translational research summary added that temozolomide is one of the few chemotherapy drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier, but more than half of glioblastoma patients do not respond to it. (pnas.org) That is why the combination matters. The 2026 paper said EdU plus temozolomide showed stronger activity than either agent alone in vitro and in orthotopic xenograft models, supporting the idea that EdU could be used alongside standard-of-care temozolomide rather than as a replacement. UNC’s biochemistry department described the work as a “novel combination therapy” aimed at exploiting DNA-repair vulnerabilities in glioblastoma cells while sparing normal tissue. (pnas.org) What comes next is not a clinical breakthrough yet but the usual translational path. The paper was received by PNAS on Nov. 11, 2025 and accepted on Dec. 1, 2025, and UNC framed it as a preclinical strategy with potential for future development. Any move toward patients would require additional toxicology, dosing and clinical testing beyond the mouse and ex vivo models reported so far. (pnas.org) I found and verified the paper, UNC summaries and Sancar’s identity and role. I could not independently confirm the exact “all mice survived beyond 250 days with no detectable tumors” wording from an accessible primary source, so I have treated that part as an unverified social-media summary rather than established fact.
