By Anna C. Greene, PhD, NETRF Chief Scientific Officer
The American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting, known as AACR, is one of the largest and most important cancer research meetings in the world. This year’s meeting was held April 17–22, 2026, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. More than 23,000 researchers, clinicians, health care professionals, survivors, patients, advocates, and industry leaders from 74 countries and territories came together to share the latest advances in cancer science and medicine.
For me, as Chief Scientific Officer of the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (NETRF), AACR was both scientifically energizing and personally meaningful. It offered a view into where cancer research is headed, and it reinforced why neuroendocrine cancer must be part of that larger conversation.
A Bigger Cancer Research Story
The major themes this year were clear: cancer changes over time, tumors adapt to treatment, and the next generation of therapies will need to be more precise, more personalized, and more aware of the tumor’s surrounding environment.
Those themes map closely to NETRF’s research roadmap: early detection, new therapeutics, and precision medicine. Neuroendocrine cancers can begin in many parts of the body. Some grow slowly, while others are highly aggressive. Some produce hormones, others do not. Tumors can also change over time, becoming more resistant or more difficult to treat. That complexity is why we need better ways to find disease earlier, develop more effective treatments, and match the right therapy to the right patient, whether they are living with a neuroendocrine tumor (NET) or a neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC).
Neuroendocrine Biology Takes Center Stage
One of the most striking scientific highlights came during the AACR Opening Plenary, where Charles L. Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discussed neuroendocrine prostate cancer and the role of lineage plasticity in treatment resistance.
Lineage plasticity is the ability of cancer cells to change their identity. In this case, prostate cancer cells can shift from a more typical prostate cancer state into a neuroendocrine-like state. This helps explain how some cancers escape standard treatments and become more aggressive or resistant.
For our field, this was an important moment. Neuroendocrine biology was not presented as a rare side note. It was presented in one of the meeting’s highest-profile scientific sessions as a central mechanism of cancer resistance. Neuroendocrine prostate cancer is not the same disease as other NETs or NECs, but the broader lesson is highly relevant: when tumors change, they may become more dangerous, but they may also reveal new vulnerabilities that researchers can target.
Rethinking CAR T Therapy for Solid Tumors
Another highlight from the AACR Opening Plenary Session came from Carl H. June, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, a pioneer in CAR T-cell therapy. His presentation focused on one of the biggest challenges in cancer immunotherapy: how to make cell-based therapies work better in solid tumors.
CAR T-cell therapy is a treatment in which a patient’s own immune cells are engineered to recognize and attack cancer. Dr. June described a two-step strategy that could be relevant across solid tumors: first change the tumor’s surroundings, making the cancer more vulnerable, and then attack the tumor cells themselves.
As an example, Dr. June described work in pancreatic tumors. First, one CAR T-cell therapy targeted cancer-associated fibroblasts, support cells that can help shield the cancer. Then, a second CAR T-cell therapy targeted mesothelin, a marker found on some tumor cells. This sequential strategy helped the tumor-targeting CAR T cells reach pancreatic tumor cells more effectively and produced responses in mice whose pancreatic tumors were otherwise resistant to mesothelin-targeted CAR T therapy.
That concept has real relevance for neuroendocrine cancers. Future therapies may need to do more than attack tumor cells directly. They may need to change the environment around the tumor, including the support cells, blood vessels, and immune signals that can help cancer cells survive and avoid treatment.
New Tools, New Possibilities
Across the meeting, there was strong momentum in antibody-drug conjugates, radiopharmaceuticals, T-cell engagers, ctDNA, artificial intelligence, and better tumor models.
Radiopharmaceuticals are especially relevant to our community, given the history of somatostatin receptor imaging and peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) in NETs. It was encouraging to see the broader oncology field investing deeply in this area. The same is true for blood-based tools like ctDNA, which may one day help us detect some cancers earlier, monitor how tumors evolve, identify resistance sooner, and design smarter clinical trials.
Showing Up for Neuroendocrine Cancer
But AACR was not only about the science on stage. It was also about the people.
I saw NETRF grantees presenting their work. I saw NETRF board members, including one participating in AACR’s Scientist↔Survivor Program, helping bring the patient perspective directly into the research conversation. I visited posters, met with investigators, shared dinners, and deepened relationships that are essential to moving the field forward.
These moments matter. Scientific progress does not happen only in lecture halls. It happens in conversations after a session, in questions asked at a poster, and in introductions between researchers, clinicians, patients, advocates, and funders. Meetings like AACR help ensure that neuroendocrine cancer is represented, visible, and connected to the fastest-moving areas of oncology.
Keeping NETs and NECs in the Conversation
For NETRF, being there is part of the mission. We are there to learn from the larger cancer field, to identify ideas that can be brought into neuroendocrine cancer research, and to make sure our community’s needs are heard.
The future of neuroendocrine cancer research will require better biology, better models, better biomarkers, better therapies, and better collaboration. AACR reminded me that all of these are possible, but only if we continue to show up, ask hard questions, and keep NETs and NECs firmly in the conversation.
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