Comment

There is evidence of a mounting mental health crisis among researchers, which may be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This Comment article discusses what cancer researchers and institutions can do to promote good mental health and wellbeing within their research communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has broadly impacted biomedical research and health care. Here we discuss current challenges for the cancer research community as they apply to early career investigators (ECIs). We propose a series of collaborative initiatives aimed to sustain ECIs and preserve and accelerate the ability to innovate with long-lasting impact.

In conflict-affected areas, people experience significant challenges in health-care delivery, and this situation is even more extreme for patients with cancer. Until now, research on access to cancer treatment and care as well as cancer disparities in war-torn and post-war regions has been limited. Therefore, we advocate coordinated, global action to address this issue and implement evidence-based solutions.

In this Comment, the author, a cancer researcher and breast cancer survivor, discusses her experience as a patient with cancer and how it influenced her approach to research.

This Comment article argues that the future successes of rare cancer research will require alternative approaches for diagnosing, researching and conducting clinical trials, which will ultimately benefit patients with all types of cancer.

The use of social media for the dissemination of published and unpublished scientific findings has exploded over the past few years. In this Comment article, Soragni and Maitra explain some of the ways in which Twitter can be used by academics to promote their science.

This Comment article argues that genomic, epigenomic and other studies on cancer in diverse populations across low-income and middle-income countries are essential in order to reduce worldwide cancer burden and improve global health.

In an effort to prevent bullying and harassment in the research sector, funding bodies have introduced policies to promote a positive research culture. Here, Sue Russell and Iain Foulkes comment on what this means for researchers.

Cancer brings an increasing health and economic burden worldwide, and the greatest impact is had on the most vulnerable populations. In this Comment, Christopher Wild discusses the need for investment to ensure long-term cancer prevention strategies.

Comprehensive genomic characterization of patient tumours has the potential to advance therapies and inform basic cancer research. In this Comment, David B. Solit and colleagues provide their personal perspective on the implementation of an enterprise-wide, prospective clinical sequencing strategy and make a call for a universal approach to next-generation sequencing-based tumour profiling.

In this Comment, the authors outline the emerging rationale for the clinical use of tumour budding, a histological manifestation of tumour cell invasion, as a diagnostic tool and biomarker in colorectal cancer.

Most of our current knowledge of melanoma is derived from the study of patients from populations of European descent, for whom public health, sun protection initiatives and screening measures have appreciably decreased disease mortality. Notably, some melanoma subtypes that most commonly develop in other populations are not associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, suggesting a different disease aetiology. Further study of these subtypes is necessary to understand their risk factors and genomic architecture, and to tailor therapies and public health campaigns to benefit patients of all ethnic groups.

Most patient-derived tumours grown subcutaneously as xenografts do not metastasize, but metastasis can occur if intact tumour tissue is orthotopically implanted. This Comment argues that these orthotopic xenografts therefore better mimic patient tumours.

Hosteet al. discuss whether allergic immune responses, which have been observed to be protective against some types of cancer, can be activated to target cancer, and what the mechanism of antitumour allergic responses might be.

Why do inherited germline mutations in common cancer-associated genes cause a restricted pattern of tissue-specific malignancies, but when somatic mutations occur in these genes they exhibit far less tissue restriction?

This Comment article argues that we should more comprehensively study the biology of benign tumours, as this might provide crucial insights into our understanding of cancer biology and metastasis.

Ottini discusses what we understand about male breast cancer and what we can learn from it in terms of breast cancer pathogenesis.

The incidence of cancer in the small intestine is considerably lower than the incidence of cancer in the large intestine. Why might this be? This article suggests that the microbiota might be part of the explanation for this difference.

Chesler discusses immune-mediated paraneoplasias as evidence of the fundamental relationship between cancer and the immune system.