Although p53 was once considered undruggable, in this Review, Peuget et al. discuss the progress made in targeting p53 as a form of cancer therapy with approaches ranging from restoration of mutant p53 function to inhibition of the negative regulator of p53, MDM2, as well as newer strategies, including p53-based mRNA vaccines and antibodies.

In this Review, de Souza et al. discuss how advances in the ability to image protein markers at high-plex, at single-cell and even subcellular resolution, are expanding our understanding of tumour biology and clinical outcomes, and outline the future promise of combining such multiplex protein imaging methods with other forms of spatial omics.

Lim et al. show that ASS1, silenced in many cancer types, is a metabolic checkpoint that, following DNA damage, halts cell cycle progression by restricting nucleotide synthesis and p53-related gene transcription.

In this study, Allan Balmain and colleagues used a mouse model to monitor stem cell networks at single-cell resolution during skin carcinogenesis, revealing two cancer stem cell states, rapid cycling and plasticity, between which cells can transition to drive tumour initiation, progression and therapy resistance.

The practice of posting preprint manuscripts on servers such as bioRxiv has become increasingly common. In this Comment, Hindle and Sever explore the utility of preprints for advancing researchers careers.

The ability of prenatal cell-free DNA sequencing to incidentally detect occult maternal malignancies was first documented over a decade ago, yet coordinated follow-up of pregnant people who receive these results is still lacking in many countries. Here we provide a call to action for oncologists to become more involved in diagnosing and managing these cases.

Patient progression and response to immunotherapy are directly influenced by the presence and quality of tumour-infiltrating leukocytes (TILs). In a recent Cell publication, Wang, Zeng et al. demonstrate the functional role of circadian rhythms in altering TIL functionality and quantity, highlighting the therapeutic potential of leveraging this understanding. 

This month, Nature Reviews Cancer launches Roadmap articles, in which we ask authors to provide a sense of direction to a field to encourage new lines of thinking and experimentation, as well as opportunities for collaboration.