The AACR Annual Meeting 2026 is taking place from April 17 to 22, 2026, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California, bringing together the global cancer research community for a comprehensive exchange of scientific knowledge and innovation. Recognized as the focal point of the cancer research community, the meeting convenes scientists, clinicians, healthcare professionals, survivors, patients, and advocates to share the latest advances in cancer science and medicine.
Here are key highlights you shouldn’t miss, featuring important insights, research developments, and perspectives shared during the AACR Annual Meeting 2026:
Ariella Hanker, Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center:
“From “undruggable to this!
Dr. Chiara Ambrogio introduces the state of the RAS inhibitor field.”
“Extremely excited to kick off day one of American Association for Cancer Research Scientist -> Survivor Program training with some incredible advocates from around the world. The program had over 400 applicants this year. Honored to have been selected. Looking forward to build on my clinical research knowledge and apply it to the important work that we do.”
“Dr. El-Deiry delivers Keynote Address at the Israel Cancer Association USA event, MAR-A-LAGO CLUB, West Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday, April 18, 2026 before heading to AACR26 in San Diego, California and hosting LegorretaCancerCenter reception on Sunday April 19, 2026 at the Annual American Association for Cancer Research Meeting. Via YouTube
El-Deiry spoke about some highlights of his research on p53, discovery of WAF1 in the early 1990’s while at Johns Hopkins, work that connected the p53 tumor suppressor to the innate immune system, and work 19 years ago in 2007 that led to discovery of ONC201/TIC10 in his lab at University of Pennsylvania. ONC201 was tested in clinical trials and was approved in August of 2025 as dordaviprone/modeyso, the first ever treatment for diffuse gliomas (aggressive brain tumors) with H3K27M mutations. He continues to work in this area including preclinical research of combinations across tumor types including brain tumors.
Dr. El-Deiry shared with the audience at the ICA event information about the field of Precision Oncology with active WIN Consortium Molecular Tumor Board, pursuit of data around the world on cancer risk and treatment efficacy, AI, digital pathology and functional precision medicine. He extended an invitation for collaboration between the WIN Consortium in cancer personalized medicine and the Israel Cancer Association.
He ended on a personal note describing his 8-hour open heart surgery at the Brigham and Women’s on July 30, 2025, and mentioned the book “God Was In The Room” (available on Amazon) that he wrote while recovering in August, 2025. He thanked the audience for their support of cancer research and encouraged them to take out their checkbooks and support the ICA in its impactful work.
Dr. El-Deiry’s 12 minute Keynote Presentation was followed by greater than 15 minutes of audience questions not included in the video. There were general questions about rising cancer rates, cancer in younger individuals, particular cancers whose rates and mortality continue to be very challenging in terms of progress. There were questions about pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, melanoma, questions about COVID vaccines and cancer, questions about nutrition, physical activity, lifestyle, discussion of limitations of cancer immunotherapy, questions about precision oncology, and questions about the best cancer centers to get opinions from around the US.
While the event was held at the winter home of President Trump, the ICA is apolitical and non-partisan. President Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago at the time of the event. Dr. El-Deiry was honored to visit Mar-a-Lago for the second time in 2026. President Trump was present at Mar-a-Lago and stopped by the last event Dr. El-Deiry attended there in late March of 2026.”
American Cancer Society Journals:
“This afternoon at AACR26, Cancer Editorial Board member Carissa Low PhD presents at the educational session on consumer wearable devices for remote patient monitoring during cancer treatment.
Recent work from Dr. Low et al applies a behavioral intervention technology framework to discuss conceptual, technical, and pragmatic considerations for developing effective and sustainable technology-based interventions tailored explicitly to rural oncology care.
Read the commentary “Bridging the rural oncology gap: A conceptual, technical, and pragmatic framework for digital interventions” in Cancer.”
“Excited to dive into AACR26! This amazing annual meeting from American Association for Cancer Research is truly the GlobalSummit on why and how Cancer Research Saves Lives!
Our Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center joins the global community to advance through dialog and collaboration.”
Norbert Kraut, Senior Executive Scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim:
“Excited to share work from the AACR Lung Cancer Task Force in Cancer Discovery, coinciding with AACR26 Lung cancer remains the leading cause of global cancer-related deaths. Here, we describe areas of unmet need and define near-term research priorities and opportunities to reduce lung cancer morbidity and mortality It’s a great pleasure to work with all colleagues in the AACR Lung Team.”
“Excited to share these data at the Cancer Vaccine Session on Monday at AACR2026.”
“Exciting data from Chae lab presented at AACR26!
We leveraged mRNA-derived signature to train an unbiased AI model for TLS detection in NSCLC HandE slides.
Key findings:
AUC 0.92 (test set)
TLS-enriched group showed significantly improved OS (HR 0.76)
Proving that HandE-based AI can provide an objective, resource-efficient way to assess TLS and predict patient outcomes.”
“Exhilarating discussions on the latest and greatest in precision oncology- where the field is headed, how Nature medicine is championing cutting‑edge science, and what the future holds. Always a delight to get brilliant insights from Saheli Sadanand, Deputy Editor Nature Medicine.”
“Great to see The Nobel Prize winner, and my friend for more than 30 years, Prof. James Allison receive the hashtagAACR2026 Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research Award.
Jim highlights a long-term survivor – a young woman with metastatic melanoma to liver, brain, lungs, that was about to go on hospice.
That woman, treated in 2005, is alive and cancer free today.. 21 yrs later. See photo below.
Many of the clinical team that ran the first clinical trial..
Thanks to Alan Korman Nils Lonberg Jedd Wolchok Walter Urba Steven O’Day John Haanen Jeff Sosman Michael Yellin Geoff Nichol Axel Hoos Dirk Schadendorf Christian Ottensmeier and Jeffrey S. Weber
Sorry… Could not find other authors on LI.
Others.
Improved Survival with Ipilimumab in Patients with Metastatic Melanoma.”
“It was wonderful to meet with Dr. Vivek Subbiah, Sandip Patel and our upcoming hallmarks of cancer seminar series speaker Charles Swanton during the AACR conference.”
Tatiana Erazo, Scientific Research Lead at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center:
“At American Association for Cancer Research, and I couldn’t be more excited
I’ll be presenting our work on blood-based biomarkers for neuroendocrine prostate cancer, an aggressive disease whose heterogeneous biology demands better tools than a single biopsy can offer.
Join me at: Proteomics: Biomarker Discovery and Signaling Networks · April 22, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Let’s connect.”
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center:
“Join Dr. Ross Levine, a leukemia specialist and physician-scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), for a session about “Targeting epigenetic dependencies in myeloid malignancies” TODAY at the 2026 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.
Sunday, April 19 at 1:30pm PDT
Learn more here.”
“As I head out to DC for ASCO Advocacy Day, inspired by AACR delegates standing together thanking congress for rejecting proposed 40% cuts.”
Álvaro Curiel-García, Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center:
“Great to see Nina Steele at the AACR26. Rockstar scientist, better person and good friend!! Can’t wait to start collaborating with you.”
Valerie Chew, Cancer immunologist:
“Amazing time at AACR 2026 San Diego with great scientific sessions, meeting with new n old friend in and outside of the meeting! Spending time with Fudan University zhongshan hospital liver cancer team.”
“Thank you Drs Suresh S. Ramalingam and Adam Marcus for hosting this beautiful event!”
Raffaele Colombo, Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Zymeworks:
“A lot of attention to pan-RAS payloads for ADCs.”
Christine Lovly, Division Chief of Thoracic Medical Oncology at City of Hope:
“Two icons AACR Annual meeting today.”
Alastair Lamb, Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellow at Cancer Research UK (CRUK):
“Excited to be at AACR26 in sunny SanDiego
- 22,000 delegates
- 7400 abstracts
- Particular focus on organ-specific developments and survivorship
First plenary talk from legend Charles Sawyer – good to see Prostate Cancer front & centre.”
Naoto T Ueno, Director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center:
“Congratulations to Dr. Yu Fujiwara for receiving a grant from AACR. He is a medical oncology fellow at Roswell Park. It was a great opportunity to meet his wife at AACR26.”
You can also see:
Highlights from AACR 2026 Part 1
