Left to right: 2024–2025 AACR President Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, PhD (hc), FAACR; AACR Chief Executive Officer Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc); and 2025–2026 AACR President Lillian L. Siu, MD, FAACR

Dear Colleagues and Friends of AACR:

We are very pleased to present the 2025 Annual Impact Report of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The report highlights AACR’s extraordinary progress during the past year in support of our mission: to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, research funding, and science policy and advocacy.

The theme of the AACR Annual Meeting 2025, “Unifying Cancer Science and Medicine: A Continuum of Innovation for Impact,” is also the theme of this report. The report outlines the many ways in which AACR’s programs and initiatives support scientists, clinicians, other health care professionals, cancer survivors, and advocates in their endeavor to drive innovation across the full spectrum of cancer research and impact the lives of patients with cancer.

AACR has a long-standing history of unifying science and medicine to overcome the challenges of the cancer problem. However, in 2025, AACR was compelled to unite the various stakeholders in the cancer research community to overcome even more formidable challenges. From the abrupt and indiscriminate dismissals of dedicated public servants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and proposals to slash the NIH budget by nearly 40%, to major cuts to leading research institutions and cancer centers across the United States, the cancer research enterprise was under threat from the Administration’s policies in 2025. As this report documents, AACR led a comprehensive year-long effort to defend the NIH and sustain the remarkable progress that has been made against cancer over the past 50 years as a result of federally funded cancer science and medicine.

In addition to helping safeguard funding for cancer research, AACR played a vital role in powering further progress against cancer in 2025. The AACR Annual Meeting 2025 brought together more than 22,000 participants in Chicago and online to present and discuss the latest breakthroughs in the cancer field—including several practice-changing clinical trials. And AACR conferences explored and advanced the frontiers of cutting-edge cancer research across a wide range of scientific areas—such as the inaugural AACR IO Conference on Discovery and Innovation in Cancer Immunology, which showcased paradigm-shifting discoveries in immunology, inflammation, and immunotherapy for cancer.

AACR also took bold steps in response to the disruptions in federal cancer funding with the launch of its largest-ever grant program: the $15 million AACR Trailblazer Cancer Research Grants to support early-stage and mid-career investigators. AACR Project GENIE® celebrated the 10th anniversary of its launch with its 18th public data release, increasing the size of this international pancancer registry to more than 250,000 sequenced tumors from more than 211,000 patients.

Now in its 15th year of publication, the latest edition of the AACR Cancer Progress Report highlights how researchers working across the entire continuum of cancer science and medicine power advances that are improving outcomes for patients, including the FDA approval of 15 new cancer therapeutics in 2025. AACR also broke new ground with the launch of the first-of-its-kind AACR Pediatric Cancer Progress Report, which outlines how research is transforming outcomes for children and adolescents with cancer while underscoring the remaining challenges.

As this report demonstrates, AACR’s more than 61,000 members in 143 countries and territories around the world are committed to overcoming all barriers to drive progress against cancer—and to working with all sectors and stakeholders to overcome them. We are proud to be the first and largest professional organization dedicated to the conquest of cancer, and we stand united in pursuing our vital mission to prevent and cure all cancers.