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  • Epidemiologic cohorts of cancer have contributed to the current understanding of cancer risk factors. In this Comment, Gomez and Cheng advocate for a new generation of cohorts that include underserved and understudied populations, and also address the roles of structural and social determinants of health.

    • Scarlett Lin Gomez
    • Iona Cheng
    Comment
  • The concurrence of cancer and pregnancy can pose complex medical, psychosocial and ethical issues. In this Comment, Varella and Partridge present approaches to the treatment of cancer during pregnancy, with a focus on patient preferences, patient and fetal risks, and team-based management.

    • Leticia Varella
    • Ann H. Partridge
    Comment
  • In this Comment, Berna Özdemir summarizes the evidence for greater drug toxicity in female patients and emphasizes the need for increased awareness of sex differences at all stages of drug development to establish sex-specific anticancer treatment strategies.

    • Berna C. Özdemir
    Comment
  • Although childhood cancer survival rates have increased globally, there is a markedly inequitable distribution of these advances. Here, Monica Gramatges summarizes these challenges and provides the reader with strategies and solutions that begin to address factors that contribute to these inequities.

    • M. Monica Gramatges
    Comment
  •  People from minority racial and ethnic groups continue to experience disproportionate cancer incidences and cancer-associated mortality rates. In this Comment, Byrd and Wolf explore the contribution of non-medical factors to the composition of the gut microbiome, and how this may be an actionable target for reducing these disparities.

    • Doratha Byrd
    • Patricia Wolf
    Comment
  • Social media has revolutionized health-care communication across medicine, particularly in the field of oncology. In this Comment, Manochakian and Dizon highlight the role of social media in promoting patient-driven cancer research to benefit all.

    • Rami Manochakian
    • Don S. Dizon
    Comment
  • In this Comment article, Bhangu and Caduff describe how the social science of medical anthropology uses qualitative methods to better understand how people in different parts of the world perceive and experience illness, and how this field of study emphasizes research approaches that humanize and add richness to our understanding of cancer in complex settings.

    • Shagufta Bhangu
    • Carlo Caduff
    Comment
  • Complex therapies and multimodal interventions have become the gold standard approach for many of the most aggressive tumour types. However, there is a lack of models that enable the development and clinical translation of such treatment concepts. In this Comment, Saur and Schnieke present an argument for porcine cancer models filling this gap.

    • Dieter Saur
    • Angelika Schnieke
    Comment
  • mRNA vaccines have proven safe and effective in preventing serious illness and death during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Comment, Morris and Kopetz argue that these technologies offer a novel approach towards personalizing immune-based treatments for patients with cancer with the potential for immune activation beyond commonly utilized immunotherapies.

    • Van K. Morris
    • Scott Kopetz
    Comment
  • The African Esophageal Cancer Consortium is a self-organized consortium of more than 80 physicians and scientists working in eastern and southern African countries. This Comment highlights the role that international collaborations with regional partners at their centre play in expanding local capacities for research and care to address cancer disparities.

    • Christian C. Abnet
    • Geoffrey C. Buckle
    • Russell E. White
    Comment
  • In this Comment, Deb et al. explore ‘cancer art’ projects that enable new conversations for a broader audience, advocate for policy and disparity issues, and lead to creative innovations for research.

    • Dhruba Deb
    • Stefani Shoreibah
    • Tal Danino
    Comment
  • In this Comment article, Alicea and Rebecca advocate for increased basic research and translational studies of acral lentiginous melanoma using the patient communities that suffer the most in order to develop therapies that benefit patients across all ethnic and racial groups.

    • Gretchen M. Alicea
    • Vito W. Rebecca
    Comment
  • Significant gaps in access to care have shifted the burden of cervical cancer disease to resource-poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The recent World Health Organization’s Call to Action to eliminate cervical cancer is a unique opportunity to galvanize change and remove barriers to prevention and care.

    • Karla Alfaro
    • Mauricio Maza
    • Montserrat Soler
    Comment
  • A systematic approach to understanding the noncoding genome in cancer promises to improve cancer diagnosis and therapy. New technologies and bold therapeutic approaches are paving the way to truly envisage personalized cancer medicine in the future.

    • Howard Y. Chang
    Comment
  • Cancer genomics research in Africa is crucial to understanding the genetic architecture of cancer and tailoring cancer diagnoses and therapies to African populations. Creating this research enterprise in Africa has to be purposeful with a roadmap that incorporates individual scientist-, international collaborator-, university or institution-, and scientific organization-level factors.

    • Folakemi T. Odedina
    • Solomon Rotimi
    Comment
  • Research funders are uniquely placed to develop and promote collaborations between multiple partners, including industry, in a positive and ethical way. This Comment calls for funders to take action to ensure that discoveries progress from the lab to patients with cancer.

    • George Tzircotis
    • Tony Hickson
    • Iain Foulkes
    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.

    • Jane Creaton
    Comment
  • 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.

    • Ross L. Levine
    • W. Kimryn Rathmell
    Comment