Providing a detailed summary of the year in cancer research, the fourteenth edition of the annual American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Cancer Progress Report to Congress and the American public was released last week. The key finding is that cancer rates continue to climb, but death rates are shrinking. However, progress has not been even against all cancer types or all stages of a given cancer type.
But it was a banner year (July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024), with 15 new anticancer therapeutics approved for use by the FDA. During the same period, FDA also approved a new imaging agent to aid breast cancer surgery and expanded the use of 15 previously approved anticancer therapeutics to treat additional cancer types.
And the outlook is encouraging. “The future of cancer science and medicine is promising. Cancer diagnostics are becoming more sophisticated. New technologies, such as spatial transcriptomics, are helping us study tumors at a cellular level. Artificial intelligence-based approaches are beginning to transform cancer detection, diagnosis, treatment decision making and response monitoring,” said Patricia M. LoRusso, PhD, AACR President 2024–2025.
Cancer is one of the biggest fields in the pharmaceutical industry, and oncology drugs dominate the list of worldwide bestsellers. Keytruda, a immunotherapy, has maintained its position since the mid-2010s as the highest-grossing drug in the world with sales of $25B. This is a 19% increase from 2022. Worldwide sales of cancer drugs were approximately $202B in 2023 and projected to grow to $518.25B by 2032.
The AACR report adds detail to those arresting facts, with a U.S. focus. This year, the report says:
- In the U.S., the overall cancer death rate has been steadily declining since the 1990s, with the reductions between 1991 and 2021 translating into more than 4.1 million cancer deaths avoided.
- The decline in overall U.S. cancer death rate is attributable to reduction in smoking rates, as well as improvements in treatment and early detection of certain cancers. More than 18 million cancer survivors were living in the United States as of January 1, 2022.
- Many segments of the U.S. population experience stark inequities in the cancer burden; these inequities are largely driven by structural and social factors.
- The economic burden of cancer on individuals and the U.S. healthcare system is expected to rise in the coming decades, highlighting the urgent need for more research and increased federal support for medical science and public health to accelerate the pace of progress against cancer.
Included in this year’s FDA approvals are the first tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte-based cellular immunotherapy that is benefiting patients with advanced melanoma; a new T cell–engaging bispecific antibody against a novel target for patients with small cell lung cancer; the first AKT-targeted therapeutic for patients with breast cancer; the first KRAS-targeted therapy for certain patients with colorectal cancer; and several new molecularly targeted therapeutics and immunotherapeutics for the treatment of patients with an array of blood cancers.
The report also pointed out that, “Surgery, radiotherapy, and cytotoxic chemotherapy constitute three of the five main pillars of cancer treatment. However, these therapies can have long-term adverse effects on patients. Through ongoing clinical studies, researchers are evaluating whether less aggressive surgery, radiotherapy, and cytotoxic chemotherapy can be appropriate for some patients with cancer, allowing these patients to experience improved quality of life.”
