Promising results with cancer vaccines based on specific antigen mutations in individual tumours, and typically used in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, are fuelling an upsurge of interest in cancer vaccination for patients with established cancer, explains Prof. Pedro Romero. 

However, researchers’ concerns about missing opportunities to publish their real-world evidence-based papers in high-ranked scientific journals are justified to some extent due to lack of ‘best practices’ from publishers and suitable peer reviewers for these study designs

This year’s recipient of the TAT Honorary Award Prof. Ruth Plummer, retraces the most significant milestones of her career in early phase studies 

Sex- and gender-sensitive medicine postulates that differences in biological sex, gender identity, role and relations all impact health and disease, and may have implications for prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment. Its goal is to learn from these differences to improve care and treatment for men and women.

In cancer research, academy and industry still work in silos but there is room for improvement, and more successful partnership can rise from an in-depth acknowledgement of needs, shared area of interests and drivers for change. A very first step towards this direction has been taken by the Clinical Academic Cancer Research Forum (CAREFOR) – a multi-stakeholder platform aiming to improve academic cancer research in Europe – which conducted an analysis of current models, challenges and effective strategies for academic-industry research together with selected industry representatives.  The paper, which has been recently published on ESMO Open, (1) is a call to action to all oncology communities to join their efforts. Commenting on the paper, Professor Eric Van Cutsem from University of Leuven, Belgium, shares his perspectives on how investing in collaborative trials may be strategic for the benefit of patients.