American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2025

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2025 is organized by American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and will be held from Apr 25 - 30, 2025 at McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.

Statement Need:
The fight against cancer is rapidly progressing with the accelerating pace of discoveries in the basic, translational, and clinical sciences. This is due in large part to the advent of new technologies, such as advanced live imaging techniques and liquid biopsies, and our increased understanding of the importance of harnessing the immune system’s power to develop new immunotherapies. However, understanding and combating the processes of cancer initiation, progression, and response to treatment require a convergence of various disciplines. The AACR Annual Meeting brings together cancer biologists, clinical oncologists, and population scientists with engineers, computational biologists, and physical scientists to develop quantitative approaches and ask new challenging questions to develop better strategies for curing cancer. By bridging the gap between what physicians understand about cancer biology and the clinical applications, this meeting aids basic researchers, physicians, and clinician-scientists in obtaining, synthesizing, and integrating the most current molecular-based tests to aid in the early screening and diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer. Further, facilitating the interface between physicians and scientists increases the contributions of laboratory research to drug development as well as patient care, transforms the design and conduct of clinical research protocols, and creates an avenue for the rapid translation of laboratory research findings from “bench-to-bedside” for the benefit of improving patient outcomes. This meeting also acts as a forum to discuss cancer disparities and help ensure that all patients benefit from emerging breakthroughs in research and cancer treatment.  

Despite the tremendous progress in the field, cancer continues to be a global public health challenge, accounting for one in every six deaths that occur around the world. The five leading causes of cancer-related morbidity were cancers of the lung, female breast, colorectum, prostate, and stomach. In the United States (U.S.), it is estimated that there will be 2,001,140 new cases of cancer in 2024 and that 611,720 people will die from some form of cancer, making it the second most common cause of death after cardiovascular disease. While overall cancer incidence in the U.S. has stabilized in recent years, certain cancer types are steadily increasing. One of the challenges we encounter is that cancer is not a single disease, it comprises more than 200 distinct diseases. Additionally, disparities in incidence, diagnosis, access to care, and survival rates that are driven by social determinants of health, and the burden of cancer is therefore shouldered disproportionately by certain segments of the population, including racial and ethnic minorities and individuals from other medically underserved populations.  

The AACR Annual Meeting historically brings together over 23,000 investigators from the basic, translational, and clinical disciplines and provides them with a venue to discuss their recent advances, test new hypotheses, and establish new collaborations.  To deliver cutting-edge technologies and treatments, it is critical to bridge the gap between physicians who are answering fundamental questions about cancer biology, clinicians who are implementing the latest diagnostics and treatments to patient care,  and the basic, translational, population and computational scientists who are striving to identify and eliminate cancer disparities to achieve health equity. With the rising incidence of cancer, the areas of early screening and detection, cancer prevention and early intervention present unparalleled opportunities to reduce the global cancer burden.

Learning Objectives:
After participating in this CME activity, physicians should be able to:  

• Assess the technological and computational advancements accelerating progress in cancer research and improving early detection and interception, with an ultimate goal to extend patients’ lives and improve their quality of life
• Articulate how advances in precision cancer medicine are enhancing patient outcomes by closely monitoring patient response and aiming to reduce side effects. 
• Incorporate the latest research findings regarding therapies and treatment options, including immunotherapy and combination therapies, in a variety of cancer types to improve patient outcomes. 
• Evaluate how tumor evolution contributes to resistance to therapy and leverage tumor heterogeneity to develop better strategies for cancer prevention, interception, and treatment. 
• Identify the factors influencing the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of various cancers in patients from diverse populations and contribute to achieving health equity. 
• Initiate collaborations among physicians, researchers, and clinician-scientists to advance cancer treatment and prevention strategies, and to support survivors.