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.

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The use of social media for the dissemination of published and unpublished scientific findings has exploded over the past few years.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.

Do we all develop a covert cancer as we age?

Metaplastic breast carcinoma (MBC) accounts for 0.2–5% of invasive breast cancers. The majority of MBCs have a triple-negative phenotype, are highly heterogeneous and respond poorly to chemotherapy. Understanding their divergent differentiation and identifying the cell of origin might provide some much-needed insight into this disease.

NUT midline carcinoma, a squamous cell carcinoma, is one of the most aggressive human cancers, and there is a desperate need for effective therapies for patients with this disease.

Stage MS neuroblastoma is unique in that it regresses without treatment. Could a better understanding of the biology of these tumours inform how high-risk neuroblastoma and other paediatric malignancies are treated?

Cancer of unknown primary site is both a challenging clinical problem and a disease that provides potential insight into the mechanisms that underlie early metastasis.

Despite a ban on the use of plants of theAristolochiagenus in herbal medicine, as they contain known carcinogens, urothelial carcinoma attributable to the use of this plant seems to be more common than previously thought.

Can mathematical techniques allow substantial biological interrogation of the seed and soil hypothesis of metastasis by considering the properties of circulating tumour cells?

The controversy surrounding thermography as a stand alone screening method for breast cancer.

The seminal article by Douglas Hanahan and Robert Weinberg on the hallmarks of cancer is 10 years old this year and its contribution to how we see cancer has been substantial. But, in embracing this view, have we lost sight of what makes cancer cancer?

A crucial aspect of tumour biology, inflammation, is often overlooked in biomarker studies and needs to be urgently addressed.