The Scientific Committee have designed the programme to cover six main themes.

Diagnosis and therapy

• Screening technologies and diagnostic markers.
• Estimation of prognosis and identification of individuals at increased risk of cancer.
• Factors associated with stage of diagnosis and clinical outcome.
• All types of therapy and all phases of development and testing.​​

Epidemiology and prevention

• Population-based research aimed at understanding causation, incidence, trends, and risk (such as environmental and genetic risk).
• Research on prevention (for example, lifestyle and nutritional factors), including individual and community interventions.
• Health services research

Quality and cost of healthcare and coordination of care

• Development and testing of healthcare delivery methods.
• Access to healthcare including primary care and screening services.
• Information, patients and the public

Public policy issues, ethics and confidentiality

• Education and communication about cancer.
• Involvement of patients and public in deciding research priorities.
• Patient-led research.
• Survivorship and end of life care

Living with and beyond cancer: physical, psychological and social impacts and their management

• Research into care at the end of life.
• The cancer cell and model systems

Molecular and cellular mechanisms of oncogenesis and tumour suppression

• The tumour microenvironment.
• Cell biology relevant to cancer.