Overactive platelets may be quietly shielding brain tumours — and blocking them woke immune cells back up

Platelets are best known for clotting blood, but Cleveland Clinic researchers found they are unusually active in people with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumour, and that their signals can dampen the T cells that fight cancer. In lab models, blocking one specific platelet receptor lifted that suppression and let T cells attack again — an effect seen in females in this early work. The discovery, published in Cancer Cell, opens a new angle on why these tumours resist the immune system.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation