This year's trend? I'd say, stead rise of immunotherapy-related presentations, and further integration of cancer genomics and molecular typing into precision medicine. Blood-based noninvasive diagnostics (fancy name: liquid biopsy) was also notable.
Cancer is not a single entity. Cancer is hundreds of diseases. At last, instead of taking one size-fits-all approach, we started looking at the differences in cancers in molecular levels, and designing medicine according to the cancer's profile.
As a matter of fact, we knew that some medicine work well on some people but not as well on other people. We began to understand the molecular basis for the event.
A good example is breast cancer. "ER-positive, Her2-positive, triple-negative", these are important typing and the course of treatment is determined according to the molecular typing. The researchers would fine tune it further, and more effective treatment will be established.
The notion of cancer stem cells seems to have been integrated in many cancer research fields already, and somewhat has lost its novelty. It's a good thing.
Cancer prevention, a field that I am involved in now, is gradually incorporating immunoprevention approach as well. With a progress, cancer immunoprevention may become a standard part of treatments for cancer (or pre-cancer or post-cancer).
I gave a talk about Chromosome Instability (a biological phenomenon integrated in the development of 80-90% of colon cancer) and its impact on colon. Simply put, our study identified targets to distinguish colonic cells with Chromosome Instability that are likely to develop to cancer, and the results are particularly important in developing agents for colon cancer prevention as well as agents for therapy.
(04/20/2015 Mini-Symposium talk)
The AACR annual meeting is a big meeting and so much was going on. There are many ways to enjoy a big meeting. Going to check out a presentation by a famous scientist. Talk with colleagues who investigate similar subjects. Listen to a presentation by smooth and fast talking postdoc, then listen to a presentation by a "Thought leader"-type big name professor who speaks much slower and enjoy the difference. Get the feel for this year's trend and predict the next year. All are valid ways to have fun.
It was a good opportunity to think about how my work should develop as well. Science does not exist in vacuum. There is a community and interactions. The meeting was quite stimulating.
