The International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO), the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), and the World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRF International) have come together to develop thinking and enhance discussion across the two disciplines of Cancer and Obesity. They have created a Scientific Programme that will underpin the first of a series of novel conferences organised by IASO. The conference will update clinicians, epidemiologists, policy makers, nutritional professionals and basic science researchers involved in obesity or cancer by challenging them with new ideas and thinking about the biological principals that underline the increased risk of developing certain cancers in obese people. The scientific sessions will examine the links between obesity and cancer from an epidemiological and mechanistic perspective. They will examine important biomarkers and early life events that relate to increased cancer risk. They will also explore the molecular events and cellular mechanisms that underlay these processes. It will examine how this knowledge could be utilised by policy makers to inform and generate new thinking and ways of preventing cancer in both the developed and developing worlds. The conference will also contain a special session from the European Prospective Investigation into Nutrition and Cancer (EPIC) to update the field and discuss the most current results and findings.