In the Spotlight

As the complexity of the cancer landscape increases, miscommunication and misunderstanding emerge as major obstacles to patient self-determination

Tumour evolution is one of the primary reasons for resistance to treatment and researchers are now learning how to use it to lead tumours down a dead end

Efficacy of targeted therapies has enabled unprecedented survival gains in the last few years, but Prof. Jean-Charles Soria believes overcoming drug resistance is likely to be a local battle fought in the tumour microenvironment 

Despite early promises, advances are needed in targeting tumour-specific epitopes, overcoming the tumour microenvironment, and automating CAR-T production, explains Prof. Ulrike Köhl 

Faced with an explosion in the complexity of genomic, imaging and clinical data, AI is rapidly becoming an indispensable tool for oncologists.

New insights into breast cancer immunology and genomics support further segmentation of patient subgroups and treatment approaches, says Prof. Sherene Loi 

While mature data from trials have demonstrated that periodic rounds of low-dose CT scan reduce lung-cancer related mortality, major issues are now implementation of screening on a large-scale and how to engage the target population 

Trastuzumab has transformed the prognosis for women with HER2+ breast cancer. On the occasion of the ESMO Breast Cancer Virtual Congress 2021, leading oncology experts recall with enthusiasm the pioneering work of researchers like José Baselga in this field and push for continuous research to investigate how to further improve the treatment of this cancer sub-type

At ELCC 2021, Prof. Fiona Blackhall sees hope for improving patients’ poor prognoses on the horizon  

With multiple new therapies available, Prof. Johan Vansteenkiste says the search is on for biomarkers to better match patients to treatments