Between the 31^stMarch and the 4^th
2012年4月,生物医学中心参加了Annual
Meetingof the American Associationfor
Cancer Research (AACR),the
oldest and largest cancer research organization in the world, in Chicago,
Illinois. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Accelerating Science:
Concept to Clinic” and more than 16,000 attendees were treated to talks
covering all aspect of basic, translational and clinical cancer research.
The AACR conference was an ideal showcase for BioMed Central’sportfolioofCancerjournals, which
includesBreast Cancer Research,
Molecular CancerandBMC Cancer,along withBMC
Medicine,the flagship medical journal of theBMC-series.

We were delighted to meet Francesco Marincola,
Editor-in-Chief ofJournal
of Translational Medicine, which has enjoyed continued success over the
past year and whose talk on the immunological constant of rejection in cancer
proved to be very interesting. We were also able to meet the Editors of
BioMed Central’s two newest cancer journals – Chung-Tsen Hsueh, Deputy
Editor-in-Chief ofExperimental
Hematology & Oncology, and Chi Van Dang, Editor-in-Chief of the
upcomingCancer &
Metabolism.BMC Cancerwas pleased to meet several of its
dedicated academicSection Editors and
Associate Editorsat the exhibition stand and also at the editorial board
meeting, which was held during the conference. We would also like to take
this opportunity to thankDanny Dhanasekaran, Editor-in-Chief ofJournal
of Molecular Signalling, Sham Kakar, Editor-in-Chief ofJournal of Ovarian Research, and
everyone who took the time to visit us at the booth.

The meeting
opened with an interesting talk by Elaine Mardis about how genomic changes in
tumors can be used to monitor response to treatment, and a central theme
linking many speakers’ presentations was how cancer medicine is moving away
from tumor-specific treatment and towards targeted therapy, in a more
personalized approach. Rakesh Jain described how the tumor microenvironment can
be modified to enhance the response to therapy in the session “Tumor
heterogeneity: challenges and therapeutic opportunities”, and Avrum
Spiragave a thought-provoking presentation on identifying lung cancer risk
genes before the development of disease, so that early interventions can be
carried out.The “Current concepts and controversies in
diagnostics, therapeutics, and prevention” session was concluded by a very
stimulating talk byBMC Cancer’s
Associate EditorDavid
Malkinon the application of genomics to the development of clinical
surveillance and treatment guidelines for children deemed to be at ‘high risk’
for cancer.

We hopeto see
youat the 2013 meeting in Washington, DC.