OVERVIEW

Mechanisms of Cancer Avoidance: from Cells to Communities is organized by European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) and will be held from Jan 19 - 20, 2027.

Description:
Despite remarkable advances in cancer treatment, prevention remains one of the greatest unmet needs in oncology. A key and largely underexplored question is why some individuals, even those exposed to well-established risk factors (genetic, environmental), never develop cancer. For example, studying these exceptional individuals – centenarians, cancer-free smokers, and twins discordant for cancer – holds the potential to unlock entirely new frameworks for cancer prevention. Similarly, within individuals at high risk of cancer, several tissues, and indeed most cells within at-risk tissues, do not develop into cancer. Studying how such cells and tissues protect against cancer may also yield important insights into cancer avoidance.

This new EACR virtual conference will bring together leading researchers to explore the emerging field of cancer avoidance: the biological mechanisms by which certain cells, tissues and people develop lifelong resistance to cancer despite high-risk exposures, genetic predispositions, or extreme age. Topics will span immunological surveillance, autoantibody biology, epidemiology of cancer resistance, tumour immunology, and prevention strategies, drawing on cohort science, systems biology and cutting-edge profiling technologies.

Topics to be covered:

Cancer resistance mechanisms
Immune surveillance
Autoantibodies as modulators of tumour biology
Epidemiology of cancer-free high-risk populations (centenarians, smoking non-developers, discordant twins)
Novel biomarkers for cancer prevention
Translational and clinical perspectives on cancer prevention
Patient’s perspective