Earlier this month (June 5, 2026), the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) joined the World Health Organization's Global Clinical Trials Forum, "reinforcing its long-standing collaboration...to advancing more equitable, high-quality clinical research worldwide." This new partnership further strengthens the mission of ESMO to provide equal access to best possible treatments for cancer patients worldwide.
Click here to read more.
The European Parliament recently adopted first-reading of the Critical Medicines Act, expanding "collaborative procurement and solidarity mechanisms, explicitly acknowledging their relevance to specialized treatments, including in oncology." Now entering interinstitutional negotiations, the Critical Medicines Act ensures that continuity of care for cancer patients will remain a key focus area for European Union health policy.
To read more about the Critical Medicines Act, click here.
Results from 2 studies presented at the recent ESMO Congress 2024 in Lugano, Switzerland, indicate that there is "no increase in recurrence or new breast cancers in women who breastfeed after being treated for breast cancer." These findings provide the first evidence on breastfeeding in patients with a BRCA mutation. Results from one of the studies dhows that of the 518 women who paused breast cancer treatment to have a baby, "317 had at least one live birth..and 62% breastfed." The rate of breast cancer recurrence after 2 years was 3.6% in women who breastfed vs. 3.1% in those that did not.
To learn more about these studies, click here.
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A new study conducted at the American Cancer Society attributes modifiable risk factors, namely smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, diet, and infections, as direct indictors of cancer death in nearly 50% of adult cancer deaths (30 years of age and older) in the United States. According to Dr. Farhad Islami, senior scientific director of cancer disparity research at the American Cancer Society, "despite considerable declines in smoking prevalence during the past few decades," 20% of cancer cases and 30% of all cancer deaths are a result of smoking. Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, is adamant that "the cost to fully fund state tobacco control programs in tiny compared to the cost of tobacco-caused diseases and the potential tobacco-caused health care cost savings states stand to gain in the long term."
To read more about this study, click here.
Source mentioned: Islami F, Marlow EC, Thomson B, McCullough ML, Rumgay H, Gapstur SM, Patel AV, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A. Proportion and number of cancer cases and deaths attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors in the United States, 2019. CA Cancer J Clin. 2024 Jul 11. doi: 10.3322/caac.21858. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38990124.
A recently completed population study by researchers at the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute shows "cost discussions were infrequently documented in medical records" of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma. According to lead study author Dr. Robin Yabroff, scientific vice president of health services research at the American Cancer Society, cost discussions were noted in only 20.3% of non-small cell lung cancer and 24% of melanoma patients.
To read more about this study, click here.
Study mentioned: Yabroff KR, Mittu K, Halpern MT. Cost-of-care discussions for individuals with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma: Findings from a large, population-based pilot study. Cancer. 2024 Jun 13. doi: 10.1002/cncr.35380. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38869706.
A new genomic study conducted at the National Cancer Institute has identified "50 new areas across the genome that are associated with the risk of developing kidney cancer." Study data from this data will be used to establish a polygenic risk score, looking at known kidney cancer risk factors, including high blood pressure, smoking, and high body-mass index.
To read more about this study, click here.
Source mentioned: Purdue MP, Dutta D, Machiela MJ, et al. Multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of kidney cancer identifies 63 susceptibility regions. Nature Genetics. April 26, 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41588-024-01725-7.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has unveiled a clinical trials network focused on evaluating various cancer screening technologies. This work is in support of Cancer Moonshot, "investigating how to identify cancers earlier, when they may be easier to treat."
To read more about this research network, click here.
A new report, recently published in the International Journal of Cancer, indicates that during the first year of COVID-19, "cancer incidence rates declined for almost all cancer types." While these findings, which also explored impact of COVID-19 pandemic on cancer incidence rates by stage at diagnosis, as well as race and ethnicity, can be attributed to suspension of healthcare during this time, study authors emphasize the importance of "strengthening the return to preventive care campaigns and outreach for detecting cancers at early and more treatable stages."
To read more about this study, click here.
Source mentioned: Schafer EJ, Islami F, Han X, Nogueira LM, Wagle NS, Yabroff KR, Sung H, Jemal A. Changes in cancer incidence rates by stage during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Int J Cancer. 2023 Nov 16. doi: 10.1002/ijc.34758. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37971377.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have recently presented findings on ways to improve effectiveness of T-cell immunotherapy treatment (namely CAR T-cell therapy) against solid tumours. According to laboratory studies, "CAR and TCR T cells modified to express the cytokines IL-15 and IL-21 on their surface killed far more cancer cells than T cells carrying just one of these cytokines or neither of them." This approach is a more targeted means of delivering the cytokines, thereby lessening severe or fatal side effects.
Click here to learn more about the study, including listening to an audio soundbite and reading the radio transcript.
A new study conducted by researchers at the American Cancer Society and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual symposium (October 27-28, 2023) has found that U.S. adults "with stage IV cancer living in nonmetropolitan, socioeconomically deprived areas, the southern U.S., or being treated at community facilities had lower accessibility to palliative care physicians than their counterparts in other areas." The study, conducted on 333,000 adults with stage IV cancer in 2018-2019, found a correlation between geographic accessibility to palliative care providers and the timeliness of quality care received.
To read more about thus study, click here.
A recent study completed by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) has shown that within the United States, adults living alone "were at a higher risk of cancer mortality in several sociodemographic groups, compared to adults living with others." According to the report, led by principal scientist Dr. Hyunjung Lee at the ACS, 38 million households lived alone in 2022, compared to 7 million households in 1960. Middle-aged adults (ages 45-64) "living alone had a 1.43 times higher [cancer mortality] risk" due in part to feelings of loneliness and social isolation.
To read more about this study, click here.
The American Cancer Society recently expanded its PAWS (Pups Assisting with Support) program to six children's hospitals across the United States. PAWS is a "pilot grant program that aims to improve the quality of life for hospitalized children with cancer through support from specially trained therapy dogs." The $8000 funding grant for each of the hospitals participating in the program covers veterinary costs, adoption, training, food, grooming, beds, toys, and improving/maintaining dog facilities for a 12-month period. Animal-assisted therapy for hospitalized children aids in decreasing anxiety, stress, depression, pain, as well as increasing quality of life.
Click here to learn more about the PAWS program.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is releasing data, via the National Cancer Institute (NCI) "that standardizes genomic, proteomic, imaging, and clinical data from individual studies of more than 1,000 tumors across 10 cancer types." The purpose of this pan-cancer proteogenomic dataset is to speed up cancer research via sharing of data, namely cancer mutations and protein modifications. Proteomics data can be accessed via the Proteomic Data Commons at https://pdc.cancer.gov/pdc/cptac-pancancer. Genomic and transcriptomic data can be accessed via the Genomic Data Commons at https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov and the Cancer Data Service at https://dataservice.datacommons.cancer.gov/.
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A recently completed machine learning modelling study at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden, Germany indicates that incorporating "plasma methoxytyramine in machine learning models, along with other clinical features such as primary tumour location and size, provides a highly accurate, non-invasive approach to predict metastases in patients with pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas", which can guide customized management and follow-up strategies for patients. The modeling study indicated that plasma methoxytyramine could identify metastatic disease "at sensitivities of 52% and specificities of 85%", with the highest-rated machine learning model encompassing nine features: plasma methoxytyramine, metanephrine, normetanephrine, age, sex, previous history of pheochromocytoma or paraganglioma, location and size of primary tumours, and presence of multifocal disease.
To read more about this study, click here.
Study mentioned: Pamporaki C, Berends AMA, Filippatos A, et al. Prediction of metastatic pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma: a machine learning modelling study using data from a cross-sectional cohort. The Lancet Digital Health; Published online 18 July 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(23)00094-8
A new report released by the American Cancer Society has found that "Black cancer survivors carry from 30% up to a three-fold higher mortality risk from cardiovascular disease", compared to White cancer survivors. Notable racial differences were also observed in terms of neighborhood socioeconomic status and health insurance status, "explaining 12% to 31% of the excess cardiovascular death among Black versus White survivors."
To learn more about this report, click here.
New studies unveiled at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), held in Chicago from June 2-6, 2023, indicate loneliness and experiencing a major financial event as direct correlations to a cancer diagnosis and higher mortality risk.
Led by Jingxuan Zhao, senior associate scientist of health services research at the American Cancer Society, cancer survivors 50 years and older reported "elevated loneliness scores [and] had higher hazard ratios, indicating higher mortality risks." These findings occurred even after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, leading to strong recommendations to implement programs to screen for loneliness among cancer survivors and provide social support.
An additional study unveiled at the ASCO annual meeting indicates that 1/3 of cancer patients experienced a major adverse financial event (AFE), such as bankruptcy, lien, or eviction, prior to being diagnosed with cancer, and were subsequently diagnosed at a later cancer stage. Of the 101,649 patients studied, 32.6% had a major AFE before being diagnosed, most commonly among non-Hispanic Black, unmarried, and low-income patients. However, "even 27% of patients in the highest income group had an AFE prior to diagnosis."
To learn more about these studies, click here and here.
A new study conducted by the American Cancer Society has found a downward trend in mortality rates for major cancers worldwide, with the exception of liver cancer in men and lung cancer in women. According to Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, senior author of the study, "these findings reinforce the importance of strengthening the health systems not only in resource-limited countries but also in high-income countries across the world for broad and equitable implementation of known cancer prevention and control interventions." 24 countries in the study reported higher mortality rates from lung cancer in women, with the highest increase noted in Spain (4.3%), Uruguay (3.7%), and Greece (3.2%). For men, highest increases in liver cancer were found in Ireland (5.8%), Norway (5.3%), and Malta (4.8%), increases which have been attributed to hepatitis C infection, and nonviral etiology, including obesity, diabetes, and heavy alcohol consumption.
To read more about this study, click here.
A recent press release from the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) announces the release of the ESMO Living Guidelines, "a new tool designed to make [guidelines] easier to use in oncologists' routine clinical practice and support optimal decision-making in a rapidly evolving medical field." The guidelines provide an overview of patient management, including decision-making algorithms and key recommendations; they are to be considered a supplement to the ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines, which remain the key "reference source for the optimal management of each tumour type and disease setting."
To read more about these guidelines, click here.
Findings from a 3 year analysis of CanScreen5, a world-wide cancer screening data repository with contributions from 84 countries and launched by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) were recently published in Nature Medicine. Focusing on screening programs for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer, CanScreen5 unveiled "large variability...regarding compliance to further assessment of screening programmes and detection rates reported for precancerous and cancers." Screening coverage for breast cancer ranged from 1.7% in Bangladesh to 85.5% in England; for cervical cancer screening, programs range from 2.1% in the Ivory Coast to 86.3% for Sweden, while colorectal cancer screening programs ranged from 0.6% in Hungary to 64.5% in the Netherlands.
To read more about the CanScreen5 study, click here.
Sources mentioned:
Zhang L, Mosquera I, Lucas E, et al. & CanScreen5 collaborators. CanScreen5, a global repository for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening programs. Nature Medicine; Published online 27 April 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02315-6
Wang F, Dong X, Li N. A call to improve the quality of screening programs. Nature Medicine; Published online 27 April 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02305-8
A new study released by the American Cancer Society has unveiled that 4.4 million fewer women were screened for cervical cancer in 2021, compared to 2019. For breast cancer, the numbers are 1.1 million fewer breast cancer screening tests administered, along with 700,000 thousand fewer for prostate cancer. According to associate scientist Jessica Star, "the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a detrimental effect on important cancer screenings...", highlighting the importance of creating greater advocacy and awareness among get screened campaigns.
To read more about this study, click here.
