Comment in 2023

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.

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.

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.

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.

 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.