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New strategies are needed in the chemoprevention of colorectal cancer. Here, Wang and colleagues investigated whether short-term treatment with freeze-dried black raspberries (BRB) could modulate biomarkers of tumor development in a cohort of colorectal cancer patients. They found that BRBs protectively modulated biomarkers of cell proliferation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis in both tumor and adjacent normal specimens. Further, BRBs caused demethylation of the promoter regions of relevant tumor suppressor genes in adjacent normal tissues and colorectal tumors, and this effect was dependent on total dose. These results provide rationale for further evaluation of BRBs in colorectal cancer prevention.Reactivation of p53 tumor suppressor activity in soft tissue sarcoma is an attractive therapeutic target. Here, Ito and colleagues investigated the significance of p53 pathway alternations in sarcomagenesis using a panel of benign or malignant bone and soft-tissue sarcomas. They found an inverse relationship between MDM2 amplification and TP53 mutations. Further, the MDM2 SNP309 G allele strongly associated with both liposarcomas and MDM2 amplification, and malignancy in sarcomas was linked either to TP53 mutation, or MDM2 amplification and the presence of a G allele. These data suggest that p53 and MDM2 could be used as biomarkers in clinical trials of MDM2 antagonists in sarcomas.There is a need for treatment strategies in pancreatic cancer to overcome resistance. In this study, Nagaraj and colleagues used a novel approach combining gemcitabine chemotherapy with targeted therapies to Src and EGFR. They found that this strategy resulted in synergistic inhibition of pancreatic tumorigenesis, indicating that a combination of targeted therapy with cytotoxic chemotherapy can overcome treatment resistance. In addition, their results suggest that identifying biomarkers of resistance to targeted therapy (such as activated STAT3 signaling) could aid in tailoring treatment to specific resistant pathways.Reovirus type 3 Dearing (reovirus) is an anticancer therapy that targets tumor types with activating mutations in the KRAS oncogene or with EGFR overexpression. Here, Lolkema and colleagues report on a phase I study of reovirus combined with chemotherapy. They found that the combination of reovirus with gemcitabine was safe, but that gemcitabine affected the neutralizing antibody response against reovirus. The development of combination therapies using oncolytic viruses holds important potential, and these data indicate that immune monitoring is an essential feature of trials that explore such combinations.