Groundbreaking findings in cancer therapy: NOXA as the key to more effective treatments

Why do some cancer patients respond better to treatment than others? An international research group led by Dr Nahide Yildirim, Marius Anders and Dr Meike Vogler, group leader in the EPHO research group, has found new answers to this question – and thus taken another step towards more personalised cancer treatments.

The study, published in the British Journal of Haematology in 2025, shows that the protein NOXA could play a decisive role in determining whether drugs such as venetoclax are effective against blood cancer or not.

What the researchers found out:

In some types of blood cancer – such as chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) – BCL2 inhibitors such as venetoclax are very effective in helping many patients. However, this is not always the case with more aggressive types of cancer such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

One possible cause: some patients lack the protein NOXA.

However, NOXA is necessary for the drugs to be effective. It ensures that the cancer cells initiate “programmed cell death” (apoptosis) – in other words, that they die in a targeted manner. If NOXA is missing, the cancer cells can evade treatment.

Why this is so important

The discovery opens up new possibilities for more precise and effective treatment of blood cancer.
In future, the presence of NOXA could serve as a biomarker – i.e. as an indication of whether a particular therapy will be effective. This would enable doctors to make more targeted decisions about which treatment is most suitable.

For patients, this means:

• Higher chances of success thanks to individually tailored therapies
• Fewer side effects because unnecessary treatments are avoided
• Greater certainty that the chosen therapy is actually effective

Looking to the future

In the long term, NOXA testing could become a possible component of diagnostics. New therapeutic approaches that specifically activate NOXA are also conceivable. This research opens the door to even more personalised cancer therapy that takes into account the individual circumstances of each person.

The study was funded by the Wilhelm Sander Foundation, German Cancer Aid and the Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation, among others.

Link and images relating to the study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41047548/

Image from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41047548/ Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ – Collage and editing by the Frankfurt Foundation for Children with Cancer.