Live Updates From the AACR Annual Meeting 2026: Monday, April 20
Day four of the AACR Annual Meeting 2026 promises to be another exciting one with a Plenary Session on artificial intelligence (AI), the Presidential Select Symposium on precision-based prevention, the NCI Director’s Address, the third Clinical Trials Plenary, and more. Be sure to keep checking back for live updates throughout the day.
If you missed our previous days’ live coverage of the meeting, catch up here:
Today’s Coverage
(All times are Pacific Time.)
8:20 p.m. – Poster Session Hosted the Youngest Presenter in the History of the AACR Annual Meeting
Dorie Liu is 14 years old and is in the ninth grade. She plays the violin and has been in her school orchestra since fourth grade. She enjoys performing music in senior centers over the holidays and weekends and volunteering in hospice programs. Today, though, she could be found at one of the poster sessions of the AACR Annual Meeting 2026 presenting her research on the potential role of melanin as a cancer treatment, something she has been working on in the past year.
“I always wanted to come to a high-level conference like this, so I submitted my abstract, and luckily, they accepted me,” she said with enthusiasm. She is the youngest person to ever present their research at this meeting.
Her poster stood among hundreds of posters presented by fellow scientists in the buzzling hall. “My study shows how melanin has a lot of potential to serve as a treatment for cancer,” Dorie explained proudly. “I hope that scientists can recognize melanin’s importance in the future.”
What sparked her interest in this specific subject, you ask? “I’ve noticed that I develop freckles in the summer, and now that I’m older, I’ve learned that it’s because of melanin,” she said. So, she wanted to expand her knowledge and learn how melanin can affect cancer.
Interestingly, her research does not focus on the role of melanin in melanoma, but in other cancer types. In her poster, Dorie shows that melanin treatment at low doses promoted cell attachment of a lymphoma cell line—suggesting it could stop cancer from spreading and inhibit metastasis, she said. It also reduced cell survival at different doses. “This shows that melanin’s effect can be dose dependent and that it can vary based on the different types of cancer,” Dorie inferred.
She also used molecular docking to study how melanin interacts with target proteins known to be involved in controlling cancer cellular processes. “Seeing that melanin has a very high binding affinity with them means that it has a high potential to control some of the processes and inhibit growth.”
Dorie grew up in a community with many elderly people who were diagnosed with cancer, and this inspired her to do cancer research. “I want to try and help and develop a treatment,” she said. We hope to see her back at many AACR Annual Meetings to come!
8:10 p.m. – Meeting of the Cancer Data Science Task Force
AACR Task Forces bring together researchers to design approaches that promote, integrate, and disseminate novel developments in areas of special interest within particular fields of cancer research. Today included a meeting of one of the newer AACR Task Forces, which focuses on cancer data science.
8 p.m. – Advocates Present Posters About Their Research
Forty advocates from the AACR Scientist↔Survivor Program presented posters on their research efforts, focusing on a broad range of topics, including discussions about scalp cooling, reminders about ways individuals can recognize, and implement processes to incorporate LGBTQ+ individuals in the current political climate.
7:20 p.m. – Presidential Select Symposium Examines Targeting Stage 0 Cancer
Yesterday, during her Presidential Address, Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR, spoke about the promise of using molecular residual disease (MRD) to treat cancer at early stages. Today, for the Presidential Select Symposium, she assembled a panel of experts who are working on strategies to prevent cancer before it begins.
“As a phase I trialist who treats a lot of patients in the advanced course of their disease … I really wanted to understand more about early cancer detection and prevention,” Siu said.
First, Sharon E. Plon, MD, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine, spoke about the possibility of screening newborns for cancer predisposition genes. While cancer risk testing is not currently part of newborn screening, Plon said that newborns are already getting a quality heel stick within 48 hours, so additional tests for cancer risk could be performed using that same sample.
While they can be performed, many have asked whether they should be conducted on newborns. Plon pointed to a simulation model that showed that by including cancer predisposition genes in newborn screening cancer, deaths among those with cancer predisposition syndromes could decrease by 54%. Further, Plon said that through the AACR Childhood Cancer Predisposition Workshops, experts have already outlined surveillance protocols for children diagnosed with these syndromes.
Plon is also working on the N-CARE randomized clinical trial with the goal of approaching 10,000 mothers of newborns to measure the acceptability for parents regarding testing for cancer risk and to identify the potential harms or risks of testing and its impact on family health.
John Burn, MD, of Newcastle University, discussed the results from the Cancer Prevention Programme (CaPP), which has been focused on identifying the right dose of aspirin to prevent cancer in people with Lynch syndrome. After eight years in CaPP3, participants who took the lowest dose of aspirin, 100 mg, had the fewest cancers commonly associated with Lynch syndrome.
Mary (Nora) L. Disis, MD, of Fred Hutch Cancer Center, provided an update on the status of preventive cancer vaccines. She laid out three different types: interception vaccines targeting precancerous lesions, prophylactic vaccination for high-risk individuals, and vaccination to reduce cancer risk overall. For interception vaccines she mentioned promising results from trials looking to intercept ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) by targeting HER2 or MUC1. Meanwhile, prophylactic vaccines for Lynch syndrome have shown early success by targeting the shared frameshift mutations of the cancers associated with Lynch syndrome. And her own group is looking into adipocyte-directed vaccination to reduce cancer risk by targeting a known cause of inflammation.
Finally, Joann G. Elmore, MD, MPH, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, promised to make people develop a healthy skepticism of artificial intelligence (AI). First, she acknowledged just how difficult diagnosing cancer is and how pathologists have been found to change their diagnosis of melanoma in situ vs. invasive lesions over 40% of the time. While AI has shown promise in providing support for the diagnosis of various cancers, there are also examples of accuracy errors and racial bias. To better understand the real-world impact of AI in diagnosing cancers, Elmore is working on the Pragmatic Randomized Trial of AI for Screening Mammography (PRISM) with a target enrollment of 400,000.
“While AI tools hold great potential, and I’m optimistic, they require rigorous evaluation,” she said.
7:05 p.m. – Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, FAACR, Shares His Vision for the NCI
Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, FAACR, shared his vision for the NCI and participated in a fireside chat with AACR Immediate Past President Lillian L. Siu, MD, PhD, FAACR, and AACR President Keith T. Flaherty, MD, PhD, FAACR.
Letai began by exalting the progress that is being made against cancer due to precision, partnership, and purpose—a nod to this year’s Annual Meeting theme. He discussed key priorities for the NCI, which include funding high-risk, high-reward science; supporting early-stage investigators; enhancing functional precision medicine; expanding screening access to underserved communities; driving progress in cancer vaccines; and more. Communicating advances to the public is another key priority, said Letai, particularly when it comes to explaining cancer risk.
Throughout the event, Letai emphasized that the mission of the NCI remains unchanged. “All of us here share a common goal: to reduce suffering from cancer,” he said. “NCI’s mission is steady, our commitment to the research enterprise is steady, our focus is on advancing the best science for patients.”
6:30 P.M. – Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, FAACR, Was Recognized With the 2026 AACR-Margaret Foti Award
Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, FAACR, a former AACR President, was recognized with the 2026 AACR-Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research. Ribas’ contributions were instrumental in the development of pembrolizumab (Keytruda), the first single-agent anti-PD-1 immunotherapy for the treatment of melanoma and several other cancer types.
He served as the principal investigator of KEYNOTE 001, a landmark trial evaluating pembrolizumab’s safety and efficacy and recognized as the largest phase I study in oncology. Over 600 melanoma patients participated in the trial at 12 institutions across the United States, Europe, and Australia. As a result of this trial, pembrolizumab was approved for the treatment of melanoma in 2014.
Ribas has also contributed to the understanding of how proteins such as BRAF, CTLA-4, and MEK may be targeted for cancer treatment. His research helped identify the molecular mechanisms underlying resistance to immunotherapies, driving further investigation into the relationship between cancer and the immune system.
Ribas is currently professor of medicine, surgery, and molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Center at UCLA. His more recent work is focused on molecular imaging and advanced monitoring of the immune system using technologies such as PET scans to precisely investigate how novel immunotherapies function at the molecular level.
6:15 P.M. – Artificial Intelligence Aids Human Pathology Experts in Extracting Complex Information From Histology Slides
Traditionally, pathologists analyzed histology slides to identify cancer, estimate aggressiveness, and note specific features. However, those slides contain so much more information that is hard to extract manually. During a Minisymposium on Digital Pathology, presenters discussed their innovative approaches to extracting information from pathology slides on cell-cell interactions, immune cell infiltration, virtual genomic profiling, therapy response prediction, and more.
For example, Rukhmini Bandyopadhyay, PhD, of The University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center, presented a pathomics framework based on a deep learning survival prediction model called Pathology-driven Immunotherapy Optimization or Path-IO, which can analyze pathology slide images and study patterns across the tissue to help identify patients who are most likely to benefit from immunotherapy.
“The core idea was to identify specific features, known as niches, within the tumor microenvironment to understand how tumors and the surrounding tissues are organized,” said Bandyopadhyay in an AACR press release, adding that the model then combines this information with available imaging and clinical data to estimate whether a patient may have a higher or lower risk of poor outcomes from immunotherapy.
The researchers tested the platform in a study that included 797 immune checkpoint inhibitor-treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients from UT MD Anderson, with external validation in 280 additional patients from Mayo Clinic, Gustave Roussy, and the phase III Lung-MAP S1400I trial in which immunotherapy-naïve patients with lung squamous cell carcinoma (a subtype of NSCLC) were treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Study results showed that the model could reliably stratify patients into higher and lower risk groups with significantly different outcomes. In the UT MD Anderson cohort, patients in the high‑risk group had more than double the risk of death or disease progression compared with patients in the low‑risk group. Comparable results were obtained in the validation datasets.
Notably, Path-IO consistently outperformed PD-L1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-validated standard-of-care biomarker for guiding immunotherapy use in NSCLC patients, across both discovery and test cohorts.
Bandyopadhyay explained that, unlike prior pathomics studies, Path-IO is a biology-guided approach that grounds the predictions in tissue structures that are familiar to clinicians to reflect how pathologists naturally interpret tissue.
She added that further investigation is critically needed to go beyond the identification of patients who would benefit from immunotherapy and help predict what type of immunotherapy they can benefit from.
6:00 P.M. – A Machine Learning Model May Help Identify the Origin of Cancers of Unknown Primary
A machine learning model analyzing CpG-based DNA methylation accurately predicted the origin of many different cancer types in patients with cancers of unknown primary (CUP), according to a poster presented this afternoon during the “Molecular Classification and Tumor Biology in Cancer” poster session. The approach may eventually help guide personalized treatment decisions for patients diagnosed with these cancers.
CUP are metastatic malignancies in which the primary cancer site could not be identified. These cancers are often associated with poorer outcomes, in part because treatment decisions must be made without knowing the cancer’s origin, explained presenter Marco A. De Velasco, PhD, of Kindai University in Japan.
Since CpG methylation acts like a molecular “fingerprint” for different tissues in the body, De Velasco and colleagues reasoned that analyzing these patterns might help pinpoint where in the body a cancer originated. To test this hypothesis, they built a computational model using methylation data from nearly 7,500 patients with 21 different cancer types obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas program and other public datasets. The researchers applied machine learning to identify sites of CpG methylation in the tumor DNA of the training cohort and to build methylation profiles that were associated with different tumor types.
They found that the model correctly identified the cancer type in about 95% of cases in the test cohort, and maintained strong performance—about 87% accuracy—when applied to an independent validation cohort of 31 cases representing 17 different cancer types.
For patients with CUP, this model could eventually help move physicians away from trial-and-error treatment approaches and instead select therapies tailored to a cancer’s likely site of origin, De Velasco explained.
“Overall, we see this research as part of a broader effort to better understand cancer using molecular information, with the goal of supporting more informed and personalized care in the future,” he said, noting that the model still needs to undergo prospective evaluation in patients with true CUP.
5:45 P.M. – Dog of the Day
Apparently, this dog was just as astounded by this morning’s Plenary Session on AI as we were! Stop by the Wellness Lounge in the Exhibit Hall to visit the dogs and amaze them with your paw-some science.
5:10 P.M. – Third Plenary Session reviewed the accelerating role of artificial intelligence in driving cancer research progress
The third Plenary Session, “AI Revolution in Cancer Research,” brought together a quartet of artificial intelligence (AI) experts to discuss how a wide array of AI tools are already making a difference in cancer research—even as the technology continues to improve.
Session Chair Jakob Nikolas Kather, PhD, MSc, of Technische Universität Dresden in Germany, opened the session with fanfare. “This is our crown jewel,” he said. “This session is where we’re presenting some of the most exciting advancements in artificial intelligence.”
Jure Leskovec, PhD, of Stanford University, spoke about a very recent development in the AI space that is nevertheless already changing how research is executed: the AI agent. Unlike large language models (think ChatGPT and similar products), AI agents can go beyond mere dialogue and execute work on their own.
He and his team used the AI agent premise to develop an AI agent called Biomni, which he described as a “coscientist.” Biomni was built to have access to hundreds of biological datasets and software packages, as well as its own virtual environment in which it can make use of these resources autonomously. This agentic capability, Leskovec said, is already enabling a fundamentally new dynamic of scientists collaborating with their AI “colleagues” to form hypotheses and answer research questions.
Bo Wang, PhD, of the University of Toronto in Canada, spoke about foundational models, where improvements are leading to a new era in what scientists can predict virtually. His tool, X-Cell (no relation to the popular spreadsheet program), has been trained on a massive amount of biological data.
X-Cell, he explained, is a “virtual cell model” that can predict how different perturbations and interventions affect cellular biology. Along with other tools like Wang’s recently developed BioReason-Pro—an AI predictor of protein function—robust and accurate AI models that improve with more data will allow scientists to have confidence in planning their investigational approaches.
Suchi Saria, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University, focused on the clinical side of how AI can be used for cancer patients. Though large patient health data systems exist, she said, their integrated warning and detection systems often fail to provide accurate or timely warnings for clinicians looking to intervene for high-consequence health events. Existing clinical practice is also, she said, reactive rather than proactive, and she aimed to use AI to change that.
Using AI, her team has developed a multistage tool that can take in a vast amount of patient information—notes, vitals, imaging, and lab results—and direct the data toward agentic, expert models. This system for automatic monitoring combined with continuous AI analysis, Saria said, was capable of drastically reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of health alerts while giving clinicians earlier, more dependable warnings for emergent health issues.
Faisal Mahmood, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, described his work on a concept old and new: histopathology. Though drawing conclusions about disease states from slide images has a long history, he said, AI has enabled a paradigm shift in what scientists can extract from patients’ slide information. Mahmood is using AI with the aim of combining health care data with slide data to create individualized models of disease that can “represent the patient in a single vector.”
One of the tools being developed by the Mahmood Lab, Apollo, was trained on millions of hospital patients to create an “atlas of medicine.” Apollo’s analytic capabilities are able, he said, to aid clinicians in risk stratification, predict disease progression, and even search for comparable patient profiles based on slide images.
Kather closed the session with an encouragement for researchers to return next year for more AI advances.
“It is truly an AI Revolution!” he said.
4 p.m. – Clinical Trial Results: Patients With Pancreatic Cancer Treated With a Personalized mRNA Vaccine Alive Six Years Later
Vinod Balachandran, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, today reported long-term follow-up results from a phase I clinical trial evaluating a personalized mRNA vaccine to treat pancreatic cancer. The vaccine is designed to recognize neoantigens unique to each patient’s cancer.
Sixteen patients received the vaccine alongside atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting. After a median of 4.2 years of follow up, the eight patients with pancreatic cancer who had vaccine-induced T-cell responses to the vaccine had significantly prolonged survival compared to their counterparts who did not have responses to the therapeutic vaccine (3.4 years vs. not reached). Seven of the eight vaccine responders (87.5%) continue to be alive for six years after surgery, as compared with two of the nonresponders (25%).
Prior studies on long-term survivors of pancreatic cancer by Balachandran and colleagues have shown that despite low mutational burden, some pancreatic cancer tumors can elicit an immune response against certain neoantigens and may therefore respond to immunotherapies.
2:50 P.M. – Third Clinical Trial Plenary Session Highlighted Next-generation Immunotherapies
Cochaired by Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, FAACR, of the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, who is the AACR President-Elect for 2026-2027, the third Clinical Trial Plenary was dedicated to “Cellular Therapies and Complex Immunotherapies,” with special emphasis on their application for solid tumors.
The session included a presentation by Omar Nadeem, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, on results of the CAR-PRISM trial, which evaluated the use of ciltacabtagene autoleucel in patients with high-risk smoldering myeloma (SMM), an early, asymptomatic form of the disease. Ciltacabtagene autoleucel is a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy approved for second-line treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
“Due to its efficacy in relapsed multiple myeloma, and the fact that it is given as a single infusion, we reasoned that ciltacabtagene autoleucel could be a practical and effective approach for patients with high-risk SMM to intercept the disease before the patient develops any symptoms,” said Nadeem. “The other rationale was that the T cells are fitter during this early disease state, and so the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapy may be even greater when administered during SMM, when the immune system is more robust.”
The CAR-PRISM trial enrolled 20 patients with high-risk SMM based on the proportion of plasma cells in their bone marrow and the amount of plasma-cell protein products in their blood.
All patients treated with ciltacabtagene autoleucel experienced low-grade cytokine release syndrome (CRS). The most common adverse events were transient hematologic toxicities. Non-immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (non-ICANS) neurologic toxicities occurred in seven patients.
Within two months of treatment, all 20 patients had experienced minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity, which was sustained at a median follow-up of 15.3 months. Six patients who were followed for longer than 18 months continued to experience MRD negativity. No disease progression or deaths were observed during follow-up.
The other clinical trials discussed included a first-in-human dose-escalation study of SynKIR-110, a novel type of CAR T-cell therapy, in patients with advanced mesothelin-expressing solid tumors; a phase I trial assessing the combination of a targeted immune costimulatory therapy with a bispecific antibody-based therapy in colorectal cancer; and a phase I/II study of mRNA-4359, an experimental mRNA-based cancer antigen therapy, plus pembrolizumab for first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic melanoma.
1:45 P.M. – Step Over to AACR Central Now to Learn About AACR PEP
After passing the torch as AACR President, Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR, is now at AACR Central in the Sails Pavilion to meet with early-career researchers interested in learning more about the AACR Professional Excellence Program (AACR PEP) that she formally announced during the Opening Ceremony on Sunday. This program was developed to enhance the AACR’s educational and professional development portfolio and empower emerging investigators with the essential skills to excel as independent researchers, effective mentors, and influential institutional leaders.
Through this program, 20 participants will engage in a curriculum of 12 learning modules over the course of a year with practical skills training, monthly virtual sessions, three in‑person workshops, and a suite of behavioral, cognitive, and conative assessments. The program also encourages active engagement with the AACR Cancer Centers Alliance.
Stop by before 2:45 p.m. to learn more about this program directly from Siu and other AACR PEP Steering Committee members before the application process officially opens later this summer.
1:40 P.M. – Keith T. Flaherty, MD, FAACR, begins term as AACR President
At the AACR Business Meeting of Members, Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR, passed the gavel—both figuratively and literally—to Keith T. Flaherty, MD, FAACR, officially launching Flaherty’s term as AACR President.
12:45 p.m. Bite-sized Research
It’s time to taco ‘bout your research! (We warned you about the puns.) We caught up with Prashanth Gokare, PhD, while he was enjoying a taco from the Doggos Caribbean food truck and got a taste of his work as the immuno-oncology, discovery program lead at Johnson & Johnson. While we didn’t get a chance to taste the taco ourselves, we’ll take their word that it is an option worth getting. Just remember, tomorrow is the last day for food trucks.
12:10 P.M. – Third New Drugs on the Horizon session unveils last four novel molecules for 2026
The New Drugs on the Horizon: Part 3 session closed the New Drugs on the Horizon series at the AACR Annual Meeting 2026 with four investigational therapeutics that have shown potential in their preclinical characterization.
Marie Evangelista, PhD, of Circle Pharma, Inc., discussed CID-078, a first-in-class oral macrocycle cyclin A/B-RxL inhibitor that selectively blocks the RxL-mediated interaction of cyclin A and cyclin B with their binding partners.
Mechanistic studies demonstrated that dual cyclinA/B inhibition by CID-078 caused replication stress, DNA damage, and, eventually, mitotic catastrophe that led to cell death. Tumor cell lines and xenograft models with elevated E2F pathway activity, displayed increased sensitivity to CID-078. A phase I trial evaluating CID-078 in solid tumors is currently enrolling patients. Early data from this study were presented during the Clinical Trial Plenary Session 1: New Frontiers in Precision Oncology.
Martin Pass, PhD, of Amphista Therapeutics in the United Kingdom, presented AMX-883, a highly selective molecular glue degrader that induces the degradation of BRD9 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). BRD9 and the noncanonical BAF complex are involved in maintaining the differentiation block that prevents normal myeloid maturation in AML cells.
AMX-833 treatment induced potent and deep BRD9 degradation and induced differentiation across multiple AML cell lines. It also caused inhibition of tumor growth and prolonged survival in patient-derived tumor models. Furthermore, AMX-833 treatment prevented the emergence of venetoclax resistance in vitro and synergized with venetoclax to block AML tumor growth in vivo. Clinical evaluation of AMX-833 is planned to begin later this year.
Smruthi Vijayaraghavan, PhD, of Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, highlighted JNJ-89862175, a novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting the ENPP3 protein, which displays apically restricted expression in normal tissue and depolarized expression in tumors and is broadly overexpressed in multiple solid tumors. JNJ-89862175 was developed as a bivalent antibody with high affinity and specificity for ENPP3 and conjugated to a microtubule inhibitor payload.
Vijayaraghavan showed that JNJ-89862175 specifically bound to ENPP3, underwent rapid internalization, and exerted cytotoxicity in vitro. In patient-derived xenograft models, JNJ-89862175 demonstrated strong antitumor activity, and it was well tolerated in preclinical toxicity studies. JNJ-89862175 is currently being evaluated in a phase I clinical trial.
Stephan G. Klinz, PhD, of Ipsen Bioscience, Inc., introduced IPN01203, a bi-specific T-cell agonist that activates Vβ6/Vβ10-expressing T cells, which are enriched in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.
IPN01203 treatment potently inhibited tumor growth and improved survival in mouse models, demonstrating increased intratumoral T-cell clonal diversity compared with untreated tumors. In non-human primate models, minimal cytokine release and no regulatory T-cell expansion was observed after IPN01203 treatment. Early clinical evaluation of IPN01203 is underway in a phase I trial.
11:35 A.M. – Are Clinical Trials Becoming Increasingly Consolidated in Large Cities?
The number of unique sites in the United States where phase I clinical trials for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were conducted decreased by 44% between 2020 and 2024, according to a study presented at a poster session focused on “Regulatory Science and Policy.” Further, over this period, trials became increasingly concentrated at the top 20 highest-volume clinical trial sites, which are largely located in major cities with an average population of more than 1.9 million.
Brittany Avin McKelvey, PhD, senior director of regulatory policy at LUNGevity Foundation, said her group wanted to better understand the concerns being raised by the FDA’s Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee (ODAC) over insufficient enrollment of U.S. patients in clinical trials and the underrepresentation of certain populations.
“It is imperative that clinical trial populations reflect as closely as possible the end-user population to sufficiently determine a therapy’s safety and efficacy and inform its optimal use,” McKelvey said in an AACR press release.
McKelvey and her team identified all interventional, industry-sponsored phase I NSCLC trials that were listed on ClinicalTrials.gov between January 2020 and December 2024. Trials were defined as open if the start date—indicating when the first patient was enrolled—fell within the study’s defined period. Trial instances were defined as the initiation of a unique trial at a unique site. During that period, 555 trials opened for a total of 8,393 trial instances across 47 countries, with the majority located in the United States (45%), China (11%), Spain (8%), Korea (5%), France (4%), and Australia (4%).
In 2022, they declined to 566 by the end of 2024. Similar trends were seen globally with trial instances declining in China (196 to 95), Spain (105 to 80), Korea (80 to 66), and France (48 to 47). Additionally, the number of unique trial sites in the United States decreased from 395 to 223; however, the number of trials at the top 20 sites with highest trial volume remained stable over this period.
“Our analysis showed a concerning trend towards trial consolidation at top-performing sites in the United States, further affirming concerns raised at the recent FDA ODAC meetings about site saturation and conflicting with the agency’s appeals to decentralize and move trials into the community,” McKelvey said. “This geographically concentrated clinical trial landscape may result in more limited access to clinical trials.”
McKelvey added that low-volume sites that were part of the National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) were able to largely maintain their trial instances compared with other low-volume sites, which could suggest that the support provided by this program could buffer these community sites against the factors driving consolidation.
“Overall, addressing this consolidation and ensuring identification of the appropriate sites for clinical research will require coordinated efforts to reduce site activation barriers, provide infrastructure support, and potentially implement policy incentives that encourage diversification of trial portfolios within the United States,” McKelvey explained.
10 a.m. – AACR Long-term Members Appreciation Event
Earlier this morning, AACR held a special breakfast to celebrate long-term members. While the event welcomed all members who have been with the AACR for 25 years or longer, special recognition was paid to those who became 50-year members in 2026. AACR President Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR, recognized the three who were able to attend this year’s AACR Annual Meeting:
- Herbert A. Freedman, PhD;
- Robert P. Gale, MD, PhD, DSc (hon); and
- Manuel Valdivieso, MD.
“My fondest memory as an AACR member is having the opportunity to work with exceptional colleagues, mentors, friends, and trainees during a period marked by the discovery of many new antineoplastic agents and a growing emphasis on a team-based approach to cancer care,” Valdivieso previously shared with AACR. “Sharing the scientific presentations that emerged from these efforts was especially rewarding, knowing that this work contributed to improving the lives of patients.”
AACR Immediate Past President Patricia LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), FAACR, shared her own appreciation for Valdivieso who was one of her mentors, and applauded the efforts of each of these long-term members for the impact they made on so many individuals pursuing careers in cancer research—and even more importantly how their own research has helped patients.
Freedman recounted how he has been blown away by all of the transformative scientific advances his generation has witnessed—and contributed to—including the discovery of the double helix; the development of tissue culture; the evolution of immunology from humoral to cellular immunity; the identification of B, T, and natural killer (NK) cells; and the establishment of clonal selection and immune surveillance. But one of his favorite memories as an AACR member is far more personal—meeting cancer research pioneer and former AACR President Charlotte Friend, PhD, at one of his first AACR meetings.
“At the time, I was a young Leukemia Society postdoctoral fellow working with the Friend leukemia virus under Drs. [Frank] Lilly and [Richard] Steeves at Einstein,” Freedman said. “Dr. Steeves introduced me to a statuesque, short-haired blonde woman wearing a simple striped dress—Charlotte Friend. Over the years, we developed a warm friendship and eventually coauthored a review article together.”
According to Gale, AACR has played a pivotal role in advancing cancer research across every stage of these long-term members’ careers.
“I joined as a young investigator, and AACR has supported my scientific growth for decades—providing a home where basic discoveries and clinical innovation continually inform one another,” Gale said. “The community, the rigor, and the shared commitment to improving patient outcomes have shaped my work and strengthened the field as a whole. For anyone who is dedicated to accelerating progress in cancer research, AACR remains an essential and inspiring place to be.”
9:35 a.m. – Meet the Editors-in-Chief of Blood Cancer Discovery
Ross L. Levine, MD, FAACR, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was named one of the editors-in-chief of the AACR journal Blood Cancer Discovery earlier this year, joining founding Editors-in-Chief Riccardo Dalla-Favera, MD, FAACR, of Columbia University, and Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, FAACR, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Now is your chance to meet Levine and Dalla-Favera at the AACR Publications Booth (#3537) in the Exhibit Hall where they are discussing their vision for the journal until 10:15 a.m.
Be sure to stop by the AACR Publications Booth throughout the day to meet more AACR journal editors-in-chief, including:
- Molecular Cancer Research Editor-in-Chief Massimo Loda, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.;
- Clinical Cancer Research Editor-in-Chief Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, from 2 to 3 p.m.; and
- Cancer Prevention Research Editors-in-Chief Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, FAACR, of the Medical University of South Carolina, and Nickolas Papadopoulos, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
6 a.m. – Meet-the-Expert Sessions With A. John Iafrate, MD, PhD, and Juanita L. Merchant, MD, PhD, FAACR
The AACR Annual Meeting Meet-the-Expert Sessions are always among attendees’ favorites as it offers the chance to engage with cancer research luminaries in an accessible setting. The first two of these sessions will be held at 5 p.m. this evening with:
- A. John Iafrate, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, who will discuss ongoing improvements in tumor characterization that use multiple sources; and
- Juanita L. Merchant, MD, PhD, FAACR, of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, who will offer an overview of how tumor-infiltrating neutrophils can be hijacked by stomach cancer to work for, rather than against, cancer.
Learn more about what you can expect in AACR Annual Meeting News.
