Two complementary advances target immunotherapy precision: first, researchers led by Cabezas‑Caballero engineered co‑signaling receptors that reduce T‑cell off‑target cross‑reactivity and improve antigen discrimination in adoptive cell therapies. The study demonstrated enhanced functional specificity in engineered T cells and proposed the co‑signaling receptor architecture as a strategy to lower off‑target toxicities. Second, a live tumor fragment platform described by Jiang et al. enables ex‑vivo assessment of tumor responses to immunotherapies using intact tumor microenvironment pieces. The platform allows functional screening of patient tumor fragments against therapies, offering a bridge between engineered cell products and real tumor biology. Together the studies, reported in peer‑reviewed journals, underscore parallel efforts to raise therapeutic specificity and functional prediction in cancer immunotherapy.