‘50 for 50’: A celebration of 50 years of cancer research at the IARC Global Cancer Conference in Lyon, France

Abstract

Celebrating the 50th year of its existence, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) held a conference in Lyon on 7 - 10 June 2016, where almost 1 000 scientists from across the globe came together to discuss today’s cancer-related challenges and tomorrow’s agenda for cancer prevention. Embedded in this celebration, IARC hosted the ‘50 for 50’ initiative. Fifty future cancer research leaders from 40 low- and middle-income countries were identified, one for each year of the agency’s existence. We learnt that the burden of cancer is expected to double over the next 20 years. Young cancer researchers have an important role to play, and we believe that we are up for the challenge.