The Significance of World Cancer Research Day

World Cancer Research Day is observed every year on September 24. As more people learn about cancer research today, I wonder: will we ever live in a world without cancer? The idea may sound as foreign to our ears as cancer itself is to the human body. But cancer research exists to take on that challenge and to seek answers to questions that have lingered for centuries.

Cancer has left its mark as a deadly disease since as far back as the 17th century BC, when the oldest written record (an Egyptian papyrus) described a bulging tumor on a woman’s breast. The scribe, reflecting the hopelessness of that time, wrote of the disease: ‘There is none [treatment].’

Many millennia later, the landscape of cancer—spanning prevention, screenings, treatments, and technologies that drive research to cure or slow cancer progression—has undergone exponential transformation.

From Percivall Pott’s 1775 discovery linking chimney soot exposure to squamous cell carcinoma to the revolutionary immunotherapy advances of the 21st century, cancer research has steadily pushed death rates down in the United States over recent decades. Today, there are many options available thanks to research advances.

Advances in Cancer Treatment

On the treatment front, emerging research shows the remarkable effectiveness of targeted therapies and immunotherapies across several cancers. As of September 2025, out of the 32 FDA oncology drug approval announcements, more than 85% of these were targeted or immunotherapy drugs. These advances are particularly important for cancers once considered difficult to treat, such as certain breast, kidney, lung, and brain cancers.

On August 6, 2025, the FDA approved dordaviprone for adults and children with diffuse midline glioma (DMG) who carry the H3 K27M mutation and whose disease has progressed after prior treatment. This targeted therapy marks the first FDA-approved drug for this rare and aggressive brain cancer.

DMG is notoriously resistant to existing therapies and often advances quickly after standard chemoradiation. With preclinical and early clinical data confirming that dordaviprone can cross the blood-brain barrier and slow this disease, treatment options for DMG have finally expanded beyond radiation alone.

Each discovery and approval builds on progress, but the work continues. Researchers are actively studying the long-term safety and efficacy of dordaviprone and testing its combination with other drugs to further improve brain cancer outcomes.

Cancer Immunotherapy: CAR-T Cell Therapy and Survival Gains

Also, extensive research on cancer immunotherapy has turned the tide for some of the most aggressive blood cancers. The multifaceted approach of cancer immunotherapy, which involves harnessing different aspects of the immune system to reduce cancer growth and spread, has proven effective in many cancers. From adoptive cell therapy, such as chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, to immune checkpoint inhibitors, cancer, as scientists often hoped, is now fighting for its own survival. Lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma are great examples of the transformative power of immunotherapy.

For years, even though more than 80% of children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survived, there were no effective options for those whose cancer returned after chemotherapy or stem cell transplant. That changed with the first approval of CAR T-cell therapy, Kymriah. Clinical trial results revealed that the treatment eliminated leukemia in most children whose tumors had come back, essentially curing them.

Building on that success, large clinical trials led to CAR T-cell approvals for multiple myeloma and several lymphomas. About 70% of patients treated in the post–CAR-T era were alive, compared with about 55% in the pre–CAR-T era. This uptick in survival outcomes with the arrival of a new treatment option represents the progress and promise of cancer research.

RNA-Based Cancer Vaccines: A New Frontier in Oncology

Another exciting development in cancer immunotherapy in recent years is the development of RNA-based cancer vaccines. These therapeutic vaccines train the immune system to attack tumor cells using nanoparticle technology for precise delivery. Clinical trial results in pancreatic cancer have shown immune responses lasting up to four years after treatment, with some patients experiencing a reduced risk of relapse.

Similarly, researchers at the University of Florida demonstrated in cell and animal models that their engineered RNA cancer vaccine mobilized lots of immune cells to eliminate brain tumors. The administration of these vaccines to pet dogs with naturally occurring brain cancer resulted in improved survival, nearly four times longer than expected.

A Phase 1 clinical trial in humans is currently underway, with an estimated completion in 2027. Research on cancer is not only transforming human health but also extending the lives of beloved pets.

Cancer Prevention and Early Detection: The Other Side of Research

In the same vein, cancer research goes beyond developing treatments. It also emphasizes prevention and early detection, both of which play a major role in improving patient outcomes. Thanks to advances in screenings and diagnostics, between 1975 and 2020, about 4.75 million cancer-related deaths were averted. In the 1920s, a sharp rise in lung cancer cases prompted researchers to investigate possible causes. Later on, researchers established tobacco use as the primary cause of lung cancer through population studies, animal experiments, and cellular pathology.

Since 1975, tobacco control policies in the United States have been estimated to have saved over 3.8 million lung cancer deaths. This discovery, along with many others linking lifestyle and environmental factors to cancer, has helped individuals understand how to actively reduce their risk of developing the disease.

As Siddhartha Mukherjee noted in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, one of the most potent and common carcinogens known to humans can be freely bought and sold at every corner store for just a few dollars. This statement is a testament to the ubiquitous nature of cancer-causing agents, ones that research continues to unmask.

AI and Liquid Biopsy: Transforming Cancer Screening and Diagnosis

Also, on the prevention front, research has provided insights into what our naked eyes cannot see—from the development of imaging technologies for screening to the use of artificial intelligence and molecular testing to forecast cancer diagnosis. For example, recent research has unveiled the potential of liquid biopsy to detect signs of colorectal cancer recurrence months before imaging. As such, doctors can get an outlook on patients’ recovery within one month after surgery.

AI-assisted imaging is also gaining traction in the early detection of cancers. By addressing challenges in cancer screening efforts, such as patient selection, risk-benefit trade-offs, and reliance on qualitative assessments alone, AI is expected to enhance diagnostic accuracy. AI models such as Prov-GigaPath, CHIEF, and Google DeepMind AI are now being used in cancer detection imaging. For instance, a research study in Sweden showed that AI-supported screening detected 29% more breast cancers compared to standard methods. This suggests that AI can significantly improve early detection of cancers that might otherwise progress.

Current Challenges in Cancer Research

While there is remarkable progress in cancer research, much of the mystery behind the rogue nature of cells, termed cancer, remains unresolved. Immunotherapy is burdened with toxicity challenges and is barely making headway in solid tumors. Targeted therapy faces resistance hurdles. AI’s application in oncology is limited by inherent issues such as data bias, lack of data standardization and management, and legal and regulatory frameworks. As a result, continued research and investigation are essential to build on the centuries of progress researchers have made in cancer care.

Cancer Research Funding Cuts Pose Risks to Progress and Patient Outcomes

Moreover, advancement in cancer research is not only threatened by technical limitations. Unfavorable policies governing research funding and disparities in access to new and effective drugs remain major challenges in the cancer research landscape.

Most of the progress in cancer treatment in the U.S. comes from funding by the National Institute of Health (NIH). But with a proposed 40% reduction to the institute’s budget and ongoing halts to grants driving life-saving cancer research, the momentum of progress is bound to slow for a few years.

A recent New York Times article showed an appalling montage of canceled grant titles, including important works like Development of a New Technique for Colon Cancer Prevention and Research to Improve the Effectiveness of Cancer Immunotherapy. These cancellations risk stagnation in cancer research, potentially leading to higher death rates and more new cases.

Health Equity and Cancer Disparities: Who Benefits From Research?

An even more challenging aspect of cancer research progress is disparities in access to new and effective treatments being rolled out every month. What is the value of research progress without a commensurate impact on the population it is meant to serve?

Disparities that affect cancer patient outcomes, such as low socioeconomic status, insurance limitations, geographic barriers, and inherent racial and ethnic inequities, act as forces opposing therapeutic advances. To make matters worse, for patients who can barely afford healthcare, the proposed Medicaid cuts of $326 billion over the next decade, along with other restrictive requirements, will lead to a massive increase in the number of uninsured individuals. For patients with cancer, these budget cuts portend lives lost. For cancer research, they represent years of effort wasted.

Why World Cancer Research Day Matters?

While cancer is a disease of the cell, it affects humans on a systemic level and their loved ones on an emotional level. Depending on any lens through which you view it, cancer research is critical, and so are the drivers of this work: research funding and health policies. For real progress and meaningful impact to be made, every sector must come together to keep cancer a moonshot away.

For the scribe who expressed hopelessness at the bleak outlook of cancer centuries ago, and for current patients who feel their lives slipping away minute by minute due to disparities, we owe it to them to keep this research engine running, attacking cancer from the lab bench and hospital wards to the offices of funding agencies and chambers of government. Prevention, treatment, and survival of cancer are at stake. Two million human lives are at stake. On this World Cancer Research Day, a united force against this deadly malignancy must be greater than ever.

About Author

Aishat Motolani serves as the Assistant Communications Manager at Binaytara, a nonprofit working to reduce cancer health disparities through global oncology programs and continuing medical education conferences for oncology healthcare professionals. She is also a lead writer for The Cancer News team.

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