• Oncogenic infections: Targets amenable to cancer prevention
This session will highlight innovative strategies and cutting-edge research aimed at targeting these infections to reduce cancer incidence. Engage with leading experts and gain insights from the latest scientific findings. This unique opportunity will allow you to delve into the specifics of how oncogenic infections can be tackled and prevented, leading to a substantial reduction in cancer cases. Be a part of this pivotal session and contribute to the growing body of knowledge that drives impactful cancer prevention measures.
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• Challenges and promises of nutritional epidemiology to investigate cancer aetiology
This discussion will unfold the multifaceted challenges and promising opportunities within this field, offering a comprehensive exploration of how dietary factors influence cancer risk and development. By highlighting cutting-edge research, innovative methodologies, and successful case studies, we aim to provide a platform for dynamic exchange and collaboration among experts.
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• Cancer Epigenetics: Unraveling Aetiology and Mechanisms to Advance Prevention
This session will highlight the crucial role of epigenetics in cancer research. We'll discuss how epigenetic modifications impact cancer development, the crosstalk between the epigenome and environmental exposures in carcinogenesis, the latest in identifying epigenetic biomarkers, and innovative approaches to cancer prevention through epigenetics. This session aims to advance understanding and application of cancer epigenetics by fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing among leading experts.
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• Classifying Cancer, Changing Lives
This session will delve into the groundbreaking WHO classification of tumors, showcasing how these classifications are revolutionizing cancer diagnosis and treatment. Be part of this enlightening experience and discover the impact of innovative cancer classification on patient lives and medical practices.
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• Cancer Surveillance in the 21st century
This session will examine the current landscape and evolution of cancer surveillance, with a focus on population-based cancer registries worldwide. It will also provide examples illustrating the power of partnerships in facilitating and building capacity for data collection and dissemination in different world regions. An overview of the currents cost of cancer will stress the importance of continuous investments in global cancer control efforts, including surveillance and primary prevention.
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• Mutational Epidemiology for Cancer Prevention
This session will explore how genetic mutations linked to cancer can identify risk factors and inform prevention strategies. This session includes oral presentations of the latest research, fostering dynamic exchanges and collaborations among experts. Join us to gain valuable insights into how genetic mutations influence cancer development and how these findings can shape future prevention methods.
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• Progress in identifying the preventable causes of human cancer
Discover groundbreaking advances in cancer prevention! Join us for a session dedicated to exploring the latest discoveries in identifying preventable causes of human cancer. Gain insights into the innovative approaches used to pinpoint previously unknown factors contributing to cancer. Be a part of the conversation aimed at reducing cancer's prevalence and impact.
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• Environmental and occupational cancer: an underestimated burden?
This session will uncover the hidden impacts of these cancers and explore innovative solutions to address them. This is your chance to engage with leading experts and participate in conversations that could shape groundbreaking policies and interventions in cancer prevention
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• 60 years of capacity building for cancer prevention research
This session will delve into the evolution and milestones of capacity building efforts, emphasizing how these initiatives have fortified cancer prevention strategies worldwide. Engage with leading experts and gain insights from pivotal initiatives on the transformative role of capacity building in global cancer prevention.
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• From Evidence to Action: Strengthening Cancer Prevention and Early Detection
This session will explore how evidence-based strategies can be translated into stronger, more effective approaches to cancer prevention and early detection. Hear from leading experts, get up to speed on the latest research, and take part in lively discussions focused on what it will take to accelerate progress and deliver real-world impact. Be part of the conversation helping shape the next chapter of cancer control.
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• Improving Survival worldwide: Towards the Global Breast Cancer Initiative
Five years after the launch of the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative, its three‑pillar implementation framework and the associated “60–60–80” targets have prompted countries to assess and strengthen their breast cancer control strategies. In this session, speakers will present research on breast cancer care and survival across diverse international settings, including experiences with both mammography‑based screening and clinical breast examination programmes. The session will conclude with a broader reflection on a critical dimension of cancer knowledge, led by a Senior Editor at Nature Medicine: “Who should we trust about cancer?"
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• Lung Cancer Screening, Early Detection, and Prevention: Addressing the Leading Cause of Cancer Deaths
This session features discussions on screening, early detection, and lung cancer prevention—the leading cause of cancer deaths globally. In the first part, speakers will give brief talks about low-dose CT lung cancer screening initiatives from various regions worldwide. The second part will focus on research efforts to improve lung cancer prevention and early detection by refining risk assessment, and will address environmental, genomic, and behavioral factors.
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• Planetary Health and Cancer
Human-driven environmental changes—including climate change, ecosystem degradation, and pollution—are increasingly threatening global health. Planetary Health has emerged as a transdisciplinary field that examines how disruptions to Earth’s natural systems affect human, animal, and environmental health. Climate change illustrates these interconnected challenges through rising temperatures, extreme weather events, altered environmental exposures, impacts on food and water systems, and pressure on healthcare systems. In this session, we will look at Planetary Health in the context of cancer research, including how these changes may indirectly increase future cancer burden through multiple environmental and societal pathways.
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• From Evidence to Practice - Making Cancer Control Work in Real-World Health Systems
This session will showcase how cancer control interventions and strategies can be translated into routine practice in diverse, real-world health systems. Through case studies spanning HPV-based cervical screening, breast cancer early detection, lung cancer screening with integrated smoking cessation, prostate cancer diagnostic pathways, and digital platforms for cancer care, speakers will highlight the practical ‘how’ of implementation - governance, workforce and service readiness, data systems, quality assurance, equity, and sustainability. Participants will leave with concrete lessons on designing, adapting, and evaluating implementation strategies, selecting meaningful indicators for monitoring performance, and anticipating bottlenecks across the screening-to-diagnosis-to-treatment continuum - particularly in resource-limited and transitioning health system contexts.
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• Tobacco and Cancer: 75 Years of Evidence and a Persistent Preventable Burden
More than seven decades of research have firmly established the carcinogenicity of tobacco and its substantial contribution to the global cancer burden. However, tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of cancer, responsible for approximately 25% of all cancer deaths worldwide.
This session will provide a comprehensive overview of the health and economic impacts of tobacco control and smoking cessation across the full cancer prevention continuum, from primary prevention to cancer screening (secondary prevention) and post‑diagnosis care (tertiary prevention). Speakers will highlight persistent gaps that hinder the effective implementation of tobacco control strategies at each level of prevention.
The session will also address key challenges in reducing the tobacco‑related cancer burden worldwide, including regional differences in trends and patterns of tobacco use, the proliferation of diverse tobacco products, and inequities in tobacco control policies and access to cessation support both within and between countries.
The session will conclude with a keynote lecture by Sir Richard Peto, reflecting on the past 75 years of the tobacco epidemic and projecting what the next 75 years may require to mitigate its devastating health impacts.
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• Gastric Cancer Prevention: New Insights into Etiology, Prevention, and Early Detection
This session explores the latest advances in gastric cancer prevention, encompassing population-based strategies, screening, and etiologic research. Speakers will present evidence from large-scale cohort studies, clinical trials, and international initiatives on the roles of lifestyle, microbial, and metabolic factors in gastric cancer, as well as current and emerging prevention strategies, practical implications of screening programs, and how research findings can guide public health action. By the end of the session, participants will understand the state of gastric cancer prevention across different regions, the expected impact of preventive strategies, and how research findings can be applied to reduce the global burden of gastric cancer.
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• Population cohorts, biobanking and research infrastructures
Large-scale, prospective observational cohorts have become essential resources for investigation into the causes of many diseases, especially for noncommunicable diseases and in particular into the causes of cancer. Biobanks are foundational research infrastructures, designed to collect store and provide research-ready biological samples and essential cohort data for population-based studies under a well-defined governance framework. This session highlights biobanking operations in different parts of the world, supporting population cohorts and high-impact, -omics driven studies.
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• Global and local modelling for shaping future cancer control policies
Context-responsive decision-making is a collegial process of negotiation between stakeholders involving civil society representatives, technical experts, and political leaders—each one with specific visions and agendas to be combined to reach a final decision. To be effective, such processes need to rely on two key components: data collection and data intelligence. The combination of these two components is necessary to move from decision-making at a global scale, which is inherently “context-free” and designed to identify generalized patterns and gaps, to a local scale which by contrast is “context-specific” and inherently pragmatic—its goal is to shape local public health actions to address the identified health-related needs within a specific context. In this session, we will illustrate through a wide range of examples how current data collection and intelligence activities of different modelling groups around the world are shaping innovative cancer contol policies.
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• Early onset cancers, challenges and opportunities
This session will explore the rising incidence of early-onset cancers (EOC), presenting global trends from regions including Australia, Spain, the United States, and Brazil. It will also highlight perspectives from patient researchers, and EOC advocacy networks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of lived experience and research priorities. Finally, the session will examine innovative approaches to studying the causes of EOC and advancing strategies for early detection.
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• Childhood Cancer Research in Action: Bridging Population Science and Discovery
In this session, we will explore wide-ranging aspects of childhood cancer research. We will learn about policy development, population-based studies, clinical aspects, molecular mechanisms, experimental models, and evidence synthesis. The session will highlight the importance of high-quality data, innovative study designs, and translational research that advance our understanding of the risk factors and outcomes of childhood cancers on a global scale.
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• Engagement of communities, civil society and patients as research partners
This session highlights the role of communities, volunteers, civil society organizations, and patients in advancing cancer research. It will examine how these groups influence research and demonstrate patient-driven impact across the cancer continuum.
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• Biomarker and Cancer early detection
This session aims to give a global view of the investigation, translation, and implementation of biomarkers in cancer early detection. With a core of biomarker, we cover various cancer types for the audience to get the most to edge information in their field. The audience would also benefit from knowing ongoing studies across different settings around the world as a reference for their future work and initiation of potential international collaboration.
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• Equity: reducing disparities and promoting appropriate care
This session examines how large and persistent cancer inequalities emerge across the continuum of prevention and care, explores the determinants that shape these patterns across diverse settings, and discusses practical solutions. It also addresses the paradox whereby unmet need in some social groups or populations coexists with overuse in others.
The opening lecture (Talk 1) highlights the scale, persistence, and ubiquity of cancer inequities globally, and introduces the paradox that these inequities coexist with overuse of unnecessary or harmful care.
Evidence from Nigeria (Talk 2) reveals geographic and socioeconomic barriers to timely screening and diagnosis, highlighting the effective screening is lowest where population risk is highest.
The Nepal experience (Talk 3) assesses and describes care pathways among cancer patients in a limited resource setting.
A presentation on commercial determinants (Talk 4) analyses how structural incentives influence prevention and care patterns, exacerbating inequalities and driving low value care.
Finally, the ICBP Network (Talk 5) discusses how equity can be operationalised through data governance and benchmarking.
Together, the talks show that advancing equity requires ensuring that effective care reaches those in need while avoiding unnecessary or inappropriate interventions.
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• Global Advances in Transforming towards Resilient and Equitable Health System
This session will showcase cutting-edge research on strengthening cancer health systems for equity and resilience across diverse global contexts. It presents real-world data and experiences—from GLOBOCAN mapping of 1.57 million cancer cases in 2022 crisis-affected populations, to Kenya’s national facility assessment revealing 46% service availability (rural 39%), India’s GIS analysis of median 96km travel burdens, Australia’s rural solutions for timely diagnosis via co-design, Brazil’s AMARTE pediatric registry tracking symptom-to-treatment timelines, and East Africa’s political economy of childhood cancer medicines access. The session synthesises cross-cutting insights on surveillance, infrastructure gaps, implementation strategies and policy levers, equipping participants with actionable evidence to transform cancer systems in LMICs and beyond. Finally the session aims to synthesise cross cutting lessons on surveillance, infrastructure, implementation science and policy levers to build equitable, crisis resilient cancer systems. Participants will gain actionable insights for reducing disparities in diagnosis, treatment and outcomes across diverse settings.
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• Lifestyle Interventions for Cancer Prevention
Evidence shows important potential of lifestyle changes in cancer prevention (considering primary, secondary and tertiary cancer prevention). However, cancer incidence levels and prevalence of cancer risk factors like obesity are suggesting limited success in sustainable lifestyle changes in the general population. Clinical care focuses on therapeutic interventions, often ignoring the unutilized potential of lifestyle interventions as adjuvant therapies or for primary prevention.
This session aims to present and discuss the need and potential of lifestyle interventions for reducing the global cancer burden. Lifestyle intervention trials being set up and evaluated for primary and tertiary cancer prevention in both, high- and low-income settings will be presented and discussed. Participants will learn about different types of lifestyle interventions being set up for cancer prevention and care, considering the barriers and opportunities for leveraging the unutilized potential of lifestyle interventions for reducing the cancer burden.
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• Translating Evidence into Action for Cervical Cancer Elimination: HPV Vaccination and HPV-Based Screening
This session will present recent evidence on HPV vaccination and HPV-based screening, discussing how research findings, epidemiological data and implementation experiences can inform effective public health programmes in support of cervical cancer elimination.
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• Policy and regulatory frameworks
The purpose of the session is the give an overview of the breath of topics that are covered under this theme and to allow many external scientists to present their work, which may generate discussions and possible interactions with IARC scientists working in this area.
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• What does global cancer science really deliver? Pathways to national impact
When does global cancer science make a difference? This session tackles a fundamental question: how does IARC’s science move beyond publication and citation to shape real decisions, real systems, and real outcomes at national level?
Using a set of concrete examples, the session explores four pathways through which international cancer evidence becomes action: by establishing legitimacy, strengthening surveillance and governability, building implementation capacity, and enabling reciprocal partnerships with countries. From carcinogen evaluations and policy modelling to screening transformation and nationally embedded prevention strategies, speakers will show how global science both influences and is shaped by national practice.
Participants will leave with a clearer sense of how evidence becomes action and what is required to turn global knowledge into meaningful, lasting change at country level.
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• Integrating AI and data science across the cancer screening continuum
This session explores how artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics are transforming cancer screening, early detection, and survivorship. Presentations will highlight innovations across major cancer sites—lung, breast, cervix, and gastrointestinal cancers—showing how deep learning, extended HPV genotyping, and AI‑based visual triage can enhance risk prediction, optimize workflows, and reduce unnecessary referrals. The session will also examine the benefits and risks of integrating AI into organized mammography screening and present evidence on competing non‑cancer mortality using nationwide datasets to inform survivorship strategies. Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of emerging AI-supported tools, their real-world implications, and how they can contribute to more efficient, equitable, and data-driven cancer control programmes.
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• Breast Cancer Etiology: New Findings on Lifestyle, Environmental, and Biological Factors
In this breast cancer etiology session, we unveil findings from epidemiology studies investigating putative lifestyle and environmental factors for this cancer, including air pollution, persistent organic pollutants, and oral contraceptives. The speakers also propose novel approaches to study triple negative tumors, to adapt risk-stratification to India and to discover determinants of survival using metabolomics.
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• Rapid Fire - 60 Early-Career Voices into Action
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