June 25-27, 2027
Westin San Diego Bayview 
San Diego, California

Conference Cochairs

Raymond N. DuBois, MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, Charleston, South Carolina
Dafna Bar-Sagi, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York
Brendan Jenkins, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Miriam Merad, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York

Inflammation is a fundamental component of the immune response, yet in cancer its effects can be profoundly complex, supporting immune surveillance and antitumor activity in some contexts while promoting tumor initiation, progression, immune escape, and therapeutic resistance in others. The AACR Conference on Inflammation and Cancer: From Immune Defense to Immune Escape will bring together leading basic, translational, and clinical investigators to examine the rapidly evolving biology at the intersection of inflammation, immunity, and cancer and to explore how these insights can be translated into new therapeutic strategies. The program will span the cellular and molecular regulators of inflammation within the tumor microenvironment, including myeloid cells, stromal populations, and inflammatory signaling networks; the dynamic relationship between adaptive immunity, T-cell function, and immunotherapy response; and the increasingly recognized role of the microbiome and host–microbial interactions in shaping cancer development and treatment outcomes. Additional sessions will examine how metabolic and systemic factors influence inflammatory states in cancer, including immunometabolism, obesity, aging, and cellular senescence, as well as how computational methods, spatial technologies, artificial intelligence, and large-scale datasets are transforming the study of complex inflammatory ecosystems. Importantly, the conference will also address the therapeutic implications of this biology, from strategies that directly target inflammatory pathways and cytokines to treatment-induced inflammatory responses and toxicities that can influence patient outcomes. By integrating mechanistic discovery with emerging translational and clinical approaches, the meeting will provide a forum to identify unresolved questions, highlight new technologies and therapeutic opportunities, and define future directions for a field that is increasingly central to understanding cancer biology and improving cancer treatment.

Please Note: All presentations at this event represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of the AACR or its members.