Search

The use of immune modulator therapeutics, a type of immunotherapy enhancing the body immune system response to cancer, was perceived as the beginning of a new era in cancer care. While still important and frequently used, some of these therapeutics produce uneven response rates, disease resistance, and serious side effects. The National Academies National Cancer Policy Forum, in collaboration with the Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation, hosted a public workshop to discuss challenges related to immunotherapy treatment resistance, as well as potential policy opportunities to improve the development of immunotherapies for cancer treatment.

The National Academies National Cancer Policy Forum hosted a Summer 2022 workshop to explore the current state of knowledge regarding risk factors for cancer and best practices for cancer prevention and risk reduction interventions. Speakers reviewed the current evidence base, examined best practices and innovative approaches for clinic- and population-based cancer prevention, and discussed strategies to promote effective communication about cancer prevention. This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the discussions held during the workshop. This workshop is the second in a series examining policy issues in cancer prevention and cancer screening. The first workshop, which took place in 2020, focused on advancing the development and implementation of effective, high-quality cancer screening.

2023 marked the 10-year anniversary of the National Academies Institute of Medicine consensus report,'Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis.'The National Cancer Policy Forum and the American Society of Clinical Oncology co-hosted a public workshop in October 2023 to provide an opportunity for the cancer community to gauge progress on the implementation of the report recommendations and to discuss persistent challenges in achieving excellent and equitable cancer care. Workshop speakers considered actions that could be taken to improve progress, as well as aspects of cancer care that have changed over the past decade and thus might require new strategies to advance the delivery of high-quality cancer care.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are collaborations among public and private entities (e.g., government agencies, research institutions, nonprofit organizations, and industry organizations) that bring together diverse expertise, resources, and perspectives to solve complex challenges. The National Academies National Cancer Policy Forum, in collaboration with the Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation, hosted a public workshop in October 2023 to examine opportunities to improve the care and outcomes for patients with cancer through PPPs for clinical cancer research.

Where people live can affect their health because of location-specific exposure to chemicals and toxicants, lifestyle, diet, immune function development, and social and historical determinants of health. A better understanding of the connections between environmental exposures and genetics that are associated with cancer can help inform efforts to identify risks and prevent potentially harmful outcomes. Recent scientific advancements have brought new insights into genomic and epigenomic biomarkers of cancer, which encompasses the toxicogenomic effects of environmental hazards, genetic susceptibility to environmental exposures, and the role of genetic and epigenetic changes in the development of cancer. Public communication around the potential risks of environmental hazards has also been evolving. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine National Cancer Policy Forum convened a virtual public workshop in collaboration with the Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health on April 13, 2023 to explore the state of the science in identifying potential genomic and epigenomic biomarkers of environmental exposures associated with cancers, with an emphasis on pediatric cancers. This proceedings document summarizes workshop discussions.

The National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a virtual workshop in March 2021 to examine the existing evidence base on how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has altered the landscape of cancer prevention and care delivery in the United States. The workshop featured presentations and discussions reviewing the effects of the ACA on people at risk for or living with cancer and providing insight into remaining policy challenges that could inform future efforts to improve and support the delivery of high-quality cancer care across the care continuum. This publication provides a high-level summary of the discussions presented during the workshop.