A future of cancer prevention and cures: highlights of the Centennial Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research

[Guest guest]

A future of cancer prevention and cures: highlights of the Centennial Meeting of

the American Association for Cancer Research

W.C. Cho*

Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, PR

China

* Correspondence to: Dr W.C. Cho, Room 1305, 13/F, Block R, Queen

Hospital, 30 Gascoigne Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: +852-29585441; Fax:

+852-29585455; E-mail: chocs@...

The Centennial Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

was held from 14-18 April 2007 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This

meeting brought together a diverse group of over 18 000 researchers working in

the fields of basic and applied cancer sciences, and explored how cancer

research could be used most effectively to prevent and cure cancer at the

earliest possible stage. The goal of the AACR Annual Meeting was to stimulate

the dialog between basic and clinical researchers so that the translation of new

discoveries might be speeded up for the benefit of cancer patients. Advances in

the clinical application of genomics, epigenomics and proteomics to diagnose,

monitor and prognosticate cancer development led to a dramatic increase in the

number of presentations with a translational focus at this year's meeting.

Several remarkable areas were particularly highlighted in this report, including

The Cancer Genome Atlas, cancer stem cells, microRNA and siRNA, targeted therapy

and individualized treatment. This article tries to bring attention to some hot

topics in the program that are both new and noteworthy. For those who did not

attend the meeting, this report may serve as a highlight of this important

international cancer research meeting.

American Association for Cancer Research, cancer stem cells, functional

proteomics, microRNA, siRNA

Received for publication May 16, 2007. Accepted for publication May 22, 2007.