In This Section

Program

All Times are Pacific Time (PT)

Beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 17, and continuing all day Saturday, April 18, 2026, a program of Educational Sessions and Methods Workshops will be presented. The program on Saturday will conclude with the Discovery Science Plenary Session titled, The Next Frontier in Minimal Residual Disease: Solid Tumors (4:15-6:15 p.m.). The Opening Ceremony and the Opening Plenary Session will take place on Sunday morning, April 19. The meeting will conclude at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22.

The 2026 Program in Progress follows:

Educational Program: Educational Sessions and Methods Workshops

The Educational Program is an integral part of the meeting and provides attendees with an opportunity to expand their knowledge base in new and exciting fields. The Educational Program consists of more than 65 unique sessions covering all areas of cancer research and features updates on critical topics and new technologies. As part of these sessions, the following popular sessions and topics will be included. Access to the Educational Program is included in your meeting registration. More information will be posted as it becomes available.

• Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy for Nonimmunologists. This exciting session is part of the yearly programming presented at the AACR Annual Meeting and organized in conjunction with the AACR Cancer Immunology Working Group. The session provides a comprehensive review of hot topics in the field and allows ample time for questions from the audience.

• Chemistry to the Clinic. This multi-part series, organized in conjunction with the AACR Chemistry in Cancer Research Working Group, provides meeting attendees with foundational knowledge of critical elements of the cancer drug design and development process, such as lead optimization and identification of molecular targets and novel drug modalities.

• Clinical Trial Design. These Methods Workshops will provide attendees with a historical and methodologic understanding of clinical trials and demonstrate how to design an appropriate trial to answer the scientific questions presented by emerging treatments. Sessions will also focus on biostatistics in clinical trials.

Plenary Sessions

Saturday, April 18, 2026
Discovery Science Plenary
The Next Frontier in Minimal Residual Disease: Solid Tumors 
Chair: Maximilian Diehn, Stanford University, Stanford, California

  • Aaron N. Hata, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Dan Landau, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
  • Jean-Christophe W. Marine, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, Leuven, Belgium
  • Jeanne Tie, Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, Melbourne, Australia

Sunday, April 19, 2026
Opening Plenary Session
Precision, Partnership, Purpose:
Advancing Cancer Science to Save Lives Globally
Cochairs: Paul S. Mischel, Stanford University, Stanford, California; Alice T. Shaw, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts

  • Carl H. June, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Georg E. Winter, CeMM – Research Center for Molecular Medicine, Vienna, Austria        
  • Regina Barzilay, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • Charles L. Sawyers, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York

Monday, April 20, 2026
AI Revolution in Cancer Research
Chair: Jakob Nicholas Kather, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

  • Jure Leskovec, Stanford University, Stanford, California
  • Faisal Mahmood, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Suchi Saria, Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Bo Wang, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Early-onset Cancers: Why Are More Young Adults Getting Cancer?
Chair: Andrew T. Chan, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

  • Ludmil B. Alexandrov, UC San Diego, San Diego, California
  • Andrew T. Chan
  • Pepper Schedin, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon
  • Hyuna Sung, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia

Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Innovative Treatment Modalities: Shaping the Future of Oncology
Chair: Katy Rezvani, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas

  • Raffaele Colombo, Zymeworks, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  • Angela Coxon, Amgen Oncology, Thousand Oaks, California
  • John B.A.G. Haanen, Netherland Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Martin G. Pomper, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, Maryland

AACR Annual Meeting 2026 Highlights
Cochairs: Paul S. Mischel, Stanford University, Stanford, California; Alice T. Shaw, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Speakers to be announced

Presidential Select Symposium

Monday, April 20, 2026
Targeting Stage 0: Precision-Based Prevention
Chair: Raymond N. Dubois, MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, Charleston, South Carolina

  • Introduction: Lillian L. Siu, UHN Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Sir John Burn, Newcastle University, Newcastle, United Kingdom
  • Mary (Nora) L. Disis, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
  • Joann G. Elmore, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California
  • Sharon Plon, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

Panelists to be announced

Session Topics Include:

  • Addressing Cancer Mortality in Areas of Persistent Poverty
  • Advances in Bladder Cancer Research and Treatment
  • Advances in Glioblastoma Research and Treatment
  • Advances in Head and Neck Cancers
  • Advances in Melanoma Research and Treatment
  • Advances in Pancreatic Cancer Research and Treatment
  • Advances in Understanding Disseminated Tumor Cells: An Emerging Opportunity to Prevent Lethal Breast Cancer?
  • Advances in Upper GI Cancers: Gastric and Esophageal
  • Agentic AI as the Cancer Researcher: Autonomous Discovery in Oncology 
  • Agentic AI as the Oncologist: Clinical Decision Support and Human-AI Collaboration 
  • AI-based Tissue Biomarkers in Cancer Multimodal AI Across Scales
  • Aneuploidy and Mutations in Normal Tissues and Their Role in Cancer Initiation and Cancer Risk
  • Benefits and Obstacles of Non-invasive Early Detection Tests
  • Beyond Genetics: How Environment, Lifestyle, and Stress Shape Cancer Risk, Control, and Treatment Response
  • Big Pharma, Small Biotech, or Academic Drug Discovery and Development: Optimizing Interactions
  • The Biology and Burden of Stress: From Societal Challenges to Cellular Responses
  • Cancer Cachexia: Tumor Signals, Systemic Impact, and Translational Opportunities
  • Cancer Interception Across Tumor Types: Addressing Modifiable Risk Factors for Early Action
  • Cancer Vaccines: The Next Frontier of Immunotherapy?  A Renaissance?
  • CAR T-Cell Therapy for Solid Tumors
  • Cell Therapy at a Crossroads: Exploring the Evolving Landscape between Autologous, Allogeneic, and In Vivo Engineering
  • Centering Hope: How Patient Voices Are Shaping Tomorrow’s Cancer Science
  • Chemotherapy Mutagenesis on Normal Tissues in Children: A Link to Late Effects?
  • Chromatin, Epigenetics, and Cancer
  • Claudin-targeted Therapies: Translating Tight Junction Biology into Precision Oncology
  • Clonal Hematopoiesis: Aging and Drivers of Blood Cancer and Solid Tumors
  • Context-specific Determinants of Somatic Evolution
  • Coordination of Translational Control
  • Crosstalk between the Nervous System and Cancer
  • Decoding Cancer’s Complex Ecosystem: The Pathology of Tumor Microenvironment and Heterogeneity
  • Decoding Renal Cell Carcinoma: Tumor Biology and Emerging Therapeutic Frontiers
  • DNA Damage Response and Synthetic Lethality in Cancer
  • Does Adherence to Oral Cancer Therapy Matter?
  • Early-onset Cancers: Interventions and Survivorship
  • Epigenetics in Hematologic Malignancies
  • The Epitranscriptome in Cancer: Modifying RNA to Shape the Future of Oncology
  • Exploiting Cancer Evolution for Clinical Impact
  • The Fallopian Tube as a Key to Ovarian Cancer Prevention: Management of Serous Tubal Intraepithelial (STIC) Lesions
  • Glues and Degraders
  • Harnessing the Power of the Immune System: Turning Cold Tumors Hot
  • HPV Vaccination and Self-Sampling for Cervical Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Globally and in Underserved Settings
  • Human Cancer Models
  • Immune Environment, Biological Mechanisms, and Radioligand Therapy
  • Immunometabolism Impacting Immunotherapy
  • Immunotherapy and DNA Repair
  • Induced Proximity Pharmacology: Degraders and Beyond
  • Inflammaging and Cancer
  • Interplay between Genetics and Environment
  • Leveraging Novel Technologies and Knowledge Bases to Optimize Success in Clinical Trials
  • Lineage Plasticity and Lung Cancer: Mechanisms and Consequences
  • Liver Cancer: Treatment, Prevention, and Mechanisms
  • Mechanisms of Immune Evasion
  • Mechanisms of Resistance to RAS Inhibition
  • Metabolic Adaptations in Metastases
  • Mitochondrial Transfer and Tumor Progression
  • Multicancer Early Detection (MCED): Where We Are and How We Realize the Hope
  • Neuroendocrine and Small Cell Lung Cancers
  • New Advances in Bispecific Antibody Development
  • New Advances in Minimal Residual Disease
  • Next Generation of CAR T-Cell Therapies
  • Next-Gen Tools for ADCs: Defining Biomarkers of Response through Technological Innovation
  • Next-Generation Radioligand Therapy
  • Non-invasive Early Detection of Single-Site Cancers
  • Novel Insights into Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA)
  • Novel Therapeutics for Pediatric Cancer Indications
  • Off-the-Shelf Cell Therapies for Cancer and Beyond
  • Opportunities to Address Cancer Disparities Using Advances in Multi-omic Technologies
  • Optimizing Efficacy While Limiting Toxicity in Immunotherapy for Cancer Treatment
  • Pediatric Brain Tumors: Biology to Therapy
  • Population Sciences for Hematological Malignancies
  • Precision Screening: Opportunities to Enhance the Benefits of Cancer Screening
  • Programmed Cell Death: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities
  • Prostate Cancer: Basic to Clinical Advances
  • Resistance to Antibody Drug Conjugates
  • RNA Biology in Cancer
  • The Role of Colibactin and Other Microbial Metabolites in Colorectal Cancer
  • Role of the Intestinal Microbiome in CAR T-Cell Therapy
  • The Role of the Non-bacterial Microbiome in Cancer
  • Science of Community Outreach and Engagement: Navigating Change and Maintaining Impact
  • Shaping the Future of AI: The Role of Pathology in the Development of Foundational Models
  • Signaling Pathways in Cancer
  • Silent Lesions, Dynamic Niches: Harnessing the Stroma to Prevent Cancer Initiation
  • Single Cell Multi-omic Technologies to Delineate Genotype-Phenotype Relationships in Cancer
  • Spatial and Single-Cell Omics at Clinical Scale
  • Spatial Technologies for Hematological Malignancies
  • Structural Insights to Cancer Biology and Therapy
  • Synthetic Biology Approaches to Cancer and Immune Cell Therapy
  • Synthetic Lethality in Oncology: Progress Made, Pitfalls Encountered, and the Path Forward
  • Targeted Therapy Frontiers in Microsatellite-Stable Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
  • Therapy-induced Microenvironmental Reprogramming and Macroenvironmental Pathophysiological Changes
  • Translating Epidemiology to the Clinic: Aspirin for the Prevention and Treatment of Colorectal Cancer
  • Tumor Necrosis as a Driver of Cancer Progression and Resistance
  • Tumor-secreted Factors: The Next Hallmark of Cancer?
  • Understanding the Impact of Mechanobiology on Tumor Evolution
  • Unveiling Peritoneal Metastasis: From Immune-Genomic Biology to Multimodal Therapies
  • Using AI and Spatial Transcriptomics Data to Predict Spatial Gene Expression from Histopathology Slides
  • ZNA and Cancer: How Characteristics of Patient Zip Codes and Neighborhoods Drive Cancer Burden

New Drugs on the Horizon Sessions

Held in collaboration with the AACR Chemistry in Cancer Research Working Group, this special three-part session series features first disclosures of the chemistry and biology of small- and large-molecule agents that are currently being or will soon be actively investigated in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer. The abstract submission and review process is distinct from the regular and late-breaking abstract submission processes. The deadline to submit an abstract for consideration is November 1. For more information, visit the New Drugs on the Horizon page.

Regulatory Science and Policy Track and Science and Health Policy Program

Decisions made by policymakers in Washington, DC, have a direct impact on cancer research and the progress being made against cancer in the United States and throughout the world. The AACR sponsors sessions with policymakers, academic researchers, patient advocates, cancer survivors, and industry representatives to foster dialogue about emerging topics in science and health policy as well as regulatory science and policy.

The Science and Health Policy Program includes sessions that will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn about how policy impacts science and vice versa. Science policy sessions will examine the current political environment affecting federal funding for the NIH and NCI, including highlighting ways for scientists to get involved in advocating for robust, sustained, and predictable budget increases.

Health policy sessions will explore how scientific evidence can inform policy on cancer prevention and control and what impact policies are having on patients and communities. Past health policy sessions have covered topics such as e-cigarettes and tobacco control measures, the Affordable Care Act, ways to prevent and control pathogen-related cancers, such as increasing the use of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, and more recently, challenges that cancer researchers are facing from many of the Administration’s Executive Orders.

The Regulatory Science and Policy Track includes informative sessions designed to highlight recent regulatory developments and provide an open forum for the consideration of issues that the FDA and those involved in drug development face as both groups seek to accelerate the pace of approval of safe and effective treatments for patients with cancer. These sessions offer an opportunity for attendees to discuss cutting-edge issues in cancer drug, biologic, and diagnostic regulation with stakeholders from academia, industry, advocacy, and government. Past regulatory science and policy topics have included strategies for increasing participation of underrepresented populations in clinical trials, best practices for using real-world evidence to support clinical trials, regulatory considerations for developing liquid biopsy tests, implications of site-agnostic therapy approval for drug development, and applications for artificial intelligence/machine learning in regulatory decision-making.

The Science of Survivorship Track includes sessions highlighting new and high-value areas of research to address the array of challenges facing long-term cancer survivors. Sessions invite trans-sector discussion among the survivor and advocacy communities, basic and clinical researchers, industry representatives, health care providers, and government officials. Past science of survivorship topics have included aging and cancer, long-term survivorship in vulnerable populations, development of new survivorship models, patient-reported outcomes, data sharing, and patient engagement.