The Future of Cancer Research

New treatments and technologies offer exciting prospects for cancer research and care, but their global impact rests on widespread implementation and accessibility.

The development of pediatric cancer drugs is vastly underfunded compared with that for adults, but legislation can correct market failures.

Grantmaking organizations play a crucial role in increasing diversity and equity in the biomedical workforce. Collecting demographic data, increasing the diversity of applicants and reducing bias in peer review are valuable strategies to achieve these goals.

Many newly approved cancer therapeutics offer limited clinical benefits yet are still prescribed to patients. A common-sense revolution in oncology would prioritize treatments that meaningfully improve survival and quality of life.

The Bloomberg New Economy International Cancer Coalition brings together academia, industry, government, patient advocacy and policy think tanks to leverage technology and collaboration to improve patient access to clinical trials and to harmonize regulations aiming to accelerate cancer cures and prevention worldwide in the post-pandemic era.

Window-of-opportunity trials, during which patients receive short-duration pre-surgical therapies, provide a platform for understanding the therapies’ mechanisms of action, but will require a paradigm shift in trial design, specimen collection and analysis.

Cancer immunotherapy is generating huge excitement, but the future may lie elsewhere, in antibody–drug conjugates, proteolysis-targeting chimeras, and liquid biopsy for early detection.

Theranostics aim to both diagnose and treat cancer. Although few such drugs are on the market, many are being tested in clinical trials, with early results showing promise.

Early-career researchers share their priorities for cancer research, from early screening and immunotherapy to nanotechnology and counseling.

Radical rethinking is needed to address the burning issues in cancer care in low- and middle-income countries. In this Perspective, the authors outline the main challenges and top priorities for cancer research now and into the future.

Precision medicine is reshaping cancer care, but the benefits are not accessible to all patients. This Perspective outlines the major challenges to the implementation of precision oncology and discusses critical steps toward resolving these.

Technological advances are producing exquisitely sensitive cancer detection tests. This Review discusses who should be tested, and how—and looks to the future of personalized, risk-based cancer screening.

Oncology is trailblazing the field of engineered cellular therapeutics. This Review discusses the goals of cellular immunotherapy in cancer, key challenges facing the field and strategies to overcome them—paving the way for treatment of other diseases.

There exists tremendous opportunity to target microorganisms in the gut and other niches to help treat or even prevent cancer. This Review outlines how microbial targeting could become a pillar of personalized cancer care over the next 5 to 10 years.

A randomized trial in treatment-naive patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma shows that the addition of a live bacterial product to an immunotherapy combination elicits promising clinical benefit in association with an enrichment of bacterial species, circulating cytokines and immune cell populations in responders.

Patients with kidney cancer who took probiotic supplements of Clostridium butyricum had improved response to immunotherapy, according to a randomized phase 1 study.

In an analysis of adult patients with hematologic malignancies who received anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, baseline gut microbiome composition was correlated with clinical response and treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics in the four weeks prior to infusion was associated with worse survival and increased neurotoxicity.

CAR T cells targeting PSMA and engineered to be resistant to immunosuppressive TGFβ signaling exhibit dose-dependent toxicity and expansion following infusion, with some transient antitumor activity, in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer

Armored CAR T cells show early signs of clinical activity in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer, paving the way for further development and optimization.

In a phase 2 trial, first-line treatment with axicabtagene ciloleucel, an autologous CD19-targeting CAR T-cell therapy, exhibited a high complete response rate and a manageable safety profile in adults with high-risk large B-cell lymphoma.

Single-cell transcriptomic and phylogenetic analyses reveal new insights into the developmental origin and potential therapeutic targets for a particularly aggressive form of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in infants.

A comprehensive analysis of models of brain metastasis and multiple cohorts of patient samples identifies a targetable molecular mechanism underlying the resistance to whole-brain radiotherapy that can inform patient selection for personalized radiotherapy.

A global analysis across 62 studies, of which 28 were meta-analyzed, reveals an increased risk of death by suicide in patients with cancer and underscores the need for comprehensive psycho-oncological therapy during clinical routine to improve the quality of life of patients.

A large-scale population analysis quantifies the burden of mental illness and self-harm events in patients diagnosed with the most common adult cancers and highlights opportunities for advancing patient care.

Two studies incorporating data from millions of patients highlight the need for consistent screening and access to supportive care.