Manchester researchers present at AACR 2025

From 25^th to 30^th April 2025, researchers and representatives from the Manchester Cancer Research Centre partnership travelled to Chicago to attend one of the largest cancer research conferences in the world.

Boasting more than 22,000 delegates from 81 countries, the AACR Annual Meeting represents an opportunity for scientists, healthcare professionals, patients and advocates to unite and share the latest innovations in cancer research.

Every year, researchers from across the MCRC partnership attend the conference to share Manchester research with our international colleagues as well as network to expand and forge new research collaborations. Across the five day conference, Manchester researchers delivered three presentations, chaired the Presidential Select Symposium, and were co-authors on a further 12 presentations and posters presented.

Highlights from AACR

Accolade for Professor Caroline Dive

AACR started with Professor Caroline Dive, Director of the CRUK National Biomarker Centre (NBC) and Interim Director of the CRUK Manchester Institute, being initiated as a Fellow of the AACR Academy. Joining a network of 375 fellows, this prestigious honour recognises Caroline’s groundbreaking contributions to small cell lung cancer research, specifically her work developing circulating tumour cell-derived explant models and translational studies.

Caroline complemented this by delivering a “Meet the Expert” session focused on “Studying metastasis in small cell lung cancer” showcasing the work at the NBC and Institute.

Presidential Select Symposium

“Cancer is a global disease – it spares no continent, no country. And each patient that gets the disease deserves treatment.” Professor Patricia LoRusso

Member of the MCRC International Advisory Board and 2024-2025 AACR President Professor Pat LoRusso elected to use her presidential select symposium to focus on “Leveraging science to reduce the cancer burden worldwide”. Chaired by Professor Robert Bristow, this symposium involved a panel of international cancer experts to discuss the topic and interventions to reduce the global burden of cancer.

Among the work spotlighted was our NIHR-funded Global Health Research project working with Kenyatta University Teaching Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) aiming to improve outcomes for patients with oesophageal cancer. Dr George Njoroge spotlighted the impact of cancer in Kenya and the projections of how cancer rates in the country will change over the coming years.

Manchester presenters

Dr Santiago Zelenay continued the track of Manchester presentations delivering a talk titled: “The COX-2/PGE2 axis: a dominant pathway underlying cancer immune evasion”.

Professor Tim Illidge delivered a talk titled: “Harnessing the radiation-induced local and systemic immune modulation to improve tumor control radiotherapy and immunotherapy”. His talk focused on the work of immunotherapy and radiotherapy combinations to improve cancer outcomes.

Finally, Rachel Chown, Associate Director (Research and innovation and Education) at The Christie presented a poster on work she and her team developed in investigating the drivers of cancer genomics research productivity in HICs and LMICs, and interventions to close the gap.

Early Career Researchers at AACR

For this year’s AACR Annual Meeting, the MCRC provided travel and registration bursaries to three early career researchers enabling them to experience the conference and network with peers. Dr Rachel Cant, Dr Federico Monaca, and Dr Eleanor Roberts, all previously hadn’t had the opportunity to attend all received £1500 to support their attendance at the annual meeting.

“This was my first time attending AACR. As someone who works on a drug discovery project, the New Drugs on the Horizon sessions were so insightful – giving me the opportunity to hear about developing new and exciting treatments in various cancers. Also, I am currently developing funding application and the grant writing workshop highlighted several schemes available and hints and tips for applications.

Dr Rachel Cant, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Epigenetics of Haemopoiesis Group

“A specific highlight for me was the Presidential Select Symposium ‘Leveraging Science to Reduce the Cancer Burden Worldwide’, which included experts from academia, government and WHO. They discussed the importance of making cancer research accessible particularly to Low and Middle Income Countries, as LMICs face limited access to screening, diagnosis and treatments and therefore suffer disproportionate cancer mortality. The panellists stressed that equitable healthcare should be of utmost priority. It was fantastic to hear about the research collaborations Manchester has particularly with Kenya, and to hear perspectives from the two Professors at the helm of the research in both Manchester and Nairobi.”

Dr Eleanor Roberts, Postdoctoral Research Associate

“I was particularly impressed by the emphasis on integrating these advancements into personalized medicine, which will potentially lead to better patient outcomes. Moreover, very promising molecules were presented during the conference, which could potentially be used in clinical practice in the coming years, offering hope for more effective treatments.”

Dr Federico Monaca, Senior Clinical Research Fellow

Rachel, Federico and Eleanor also gave their recommendations for anyone attending a major conference:

• Everyone has had a first time attending a large international conference
• Plan ahead of time – Research the programme and plan which talks you wish to attend
• Attend poster and talks beyond your area of expertise, you never know what you might discover and who you might meet
• Attend the sessions where there is some networking involved.
• Rachel specifically recommended the Women in Cancer Research session if looking to meet people who might be attending their first conference.

Attend poster sessions asking “Can you talk me through your poster?”