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Editor’s Choice: World Cancer Day 2021

The Editors of BMC Medicine are delighted to share with you a selection of key papers that highlight some of the best Oncology research published in the journal to mark the World Cancer Day.

For more content, please visit our Springer Nature website.

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  1. A high body mass index (BMI) has been associated with increased risk of several cancers; however, whether BMI is related to a larger number of cancers than currently recognized is unclear. Moreover, whether wa...

    Authors: Martina Recalde, Veronica Davila-Batista, Yesika Díaz, Michael Leitzmann, Isabelle Romieu, Heinz Freisling and Talita Duarte-Salles
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:10
  2. Higher adiposity increases the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), but whether this relationship varies by anatomical sub-site or by sex is unclear. Further, the metabolic alterations mediating the effects of adi...

    Authors: Caroline J. Bull, Joshua A. Bell, Neil Murphy, Eleanor Sanderson, George Davey Smith, Nicholas J. Timpson, Barbara L. Banbury, Demetrius Albanes, Sonja I. Berndt, Stéphane Bézieau, D. Timothy Bishop, Hermann Brenner, Daniel D. Buchanan, Andrea Burnett-Hartman, Graham Casey, Sergi Castellví-Bel…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:396
  3. Adjuvant chemotherapy induces weight gain, glucose intolerance, and hypertension in about a third of women. The mechanisms underlying these events have not been defined. This study assessed the association bet...

    Authors: Atara Uzan-Yulzari, Maya Morr, Hala Tareef-Nabwani, Oren Ziv, Dafna Magid-Neriya, Ran Armoni, Efrat Muller, Anca Leibovici, Elhanan Borenstein, Yoram Louzoun, Ayelet Shai and Omry Koren
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:281
  4. High consumption of red and processed meat is commonly associated with increased cancer risk, particularly colorectal cancer. Antibodies against the red meat-derived carbohydrate N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc...

    Authors: Salam Bashir, Leopold K. Fezeu, Shani Leviatan Ben-Arye, Sharon Yehuda, Eliran Moshe Reuven, Fabien Szabo de Edelenyi, Imen Fellah-Hebia, Thierry Le Tourneau, Berthe Marie Imbert-Marcille, Emmanuel B. Drouet, Mathilde Touvier, Jean-Christian Roussel, Hai Yu, Xi Chen, Serge Hercberg, Emanuele Cozzi…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:262
  5. A number of studies have reported an association between the occurrence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and clinical efficacy in patients undergoing treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs),...

    Authors: Xiaoxiang Zhou, Zhuoran Yao, Huaxia Yang, Naixin Liang, Xuan Zhang and Fengchun Zhang
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:87

    The Commentary to this article has been published in BMC Medicine 2020 18:111

  6. In January 2017, the Dutch cervical cancer screening programme transitioned from cytomorphological to primary high-risk HPV (hrHPV) DNA screening, including the introduction of self-sampling, for women aged be...

    Authors: Clare A. Aitken, Heleen M. E. van Agt, Albert G. Siebers, Folkert J. van Kemenade, Hubert G. M. Niesters, Willem J. G. Melchers, Judith E. M. Vedder, Rob Schuurman, Adriaan J. C. van den Brule, Hans C. van der Linden, John W. J. Hinrichs, Anco Molijn, Klaas J. Hoogduin, Bettien M. van Hemel and Inge M. C. M. de Kok
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2019 17:228
  7. In locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LANPC) patients, variance of tumor response to induction chemotherapy (ICT) was observed. We developed and validated a novel imaging biomarker to predict wh...

    Authors: Di Dong, Fan Zhang, Lian-Zhen Zhong, Meng-Jie Fang, Cheng-Long Huang, Ji-Jin Yao, Ying Sun, Jie Tian, Jun Ma and Ling-Long Tang
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2019 17:190
  8. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common condition that progresses in some patients to steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here we used healthcare records of 18 m...

    Authors: Myriam Alexander, A. Katrina Loomis, Johan van der Lei, Talita Duarte-Salles, Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, David Ansell, Alessandro Pasqua, Francesco Lapi, Peter Rijnbeek, Mees Mosseveld, Dawn M. Waterworth, Stuart Kendrick, Naveed Sattar and William Alazawi
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2019 17:95

    The Commentary to this article has been published in BMC Medicine 2019 17:123

  9. The focus of this study is to identify particular microRNA (miRNA) signatures in exosomes derived from plasma of 435 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive and triple-negative (TN) subtypes o...

    Authors: Ines Stevic, Volkmar Müller, Karsten Weber, Peter A. Fasching, Thomas Karn, Frederic Marmé, Christian Schem, Elmar Stickeler, Carsten Denkert, Marion van Mackelenbergh, Christoph Salat, Andreas Schneeweiss, Klaus Pantel, Sibylle Loibl, Michael Untch and Heidi Schwarzenbach
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2018 16:179
  10. The prognosis of pancreatic cancer (PaC) strongly varies across different stages and age groups, which has unfortunately not been well recorded in the literature. This international population-based study aime...

    Authors: Lei Huang, Lina Jansen, Yesilda Balavarca, Masoud Babaei, Lydia van der Geest, Valery Lemmens, Liesbet Van Eycken, Harlinde De Schutter, Tom B. Johannesen, Maja Primic-Žakelj, Vesna Zadnik, Marc G. Besselink, Petra Schrotz-King and Hermann Brenner
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2018 16:125
  11. Whilst observational studies establish that lower plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) levels are associated with higher risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), establishing causality has proven challenging. Since vit...

    Authors: Yazhou He, Maria Timofeeva, Susan M. Farrington, Peter Vaughan-Shaw, Victoria Svinti, Marion Walker, Lina Zgaga, Xiangrui Meng, Xue Li, Athina Spiliopoulou, Xia Jiang, Elina Hyppönen, Peter Kraft, Douglas P. Kiel, Caroline Hayward, Archie Campbell…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2018 16:142
  12. The relationship between body size and prostate cancer risk, and in particular risk by tumour characteristics, is not clear because most studies have not differentiated between high-grade or advanced stage tum...

    Authors: Aurora Perez-Cornago, Paul N. Appleby, Tobias Pischon, Konstantinos K. Tsilidis, Anne Tjønneland, Anja Olsen, Kim Overvad, Rudolf Kaaks, Tilman Kühn, Heiner Boeing, Annika Steffen, Antonia Trichopoulou, Pagona Lagiou, Maria Kritikou, Vittorio Krogh, Domenico Palli…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2017 15:115
  13. Calorie restriction (CR) extends lifespan and has been shown to reduce age-related diseases including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases in experimental models. Recent translat...

    Authors: Ciara H. O’Flanagan, Laura A. Smith, Shannon B. McDonell and Stephen D. Hursting
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2017 15:106
  14. Well-designed observational studies of individuals with rare tumors are needed to improve patient care, clinical investigations, and the education of healthcare professionals.

    Authors: Marion Savina, Axel Le Cesne, Jean-Yves Blay, Isabelle Ray-Coquard, Olivier Mir, Maud Toulmonde, Sophie Cousin, Philippe Terrier, Dominique Ranchere-Vince, Pierre Meeus, Eberhard Stoeckle, Charles Honoré, Paul Sargos, Marie-Pierre Sunyach, Cécile Le Péchoux, Antoine Giraud…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2017 15:78
  15. These are exciting times for cancer immunotherapy. After many years of disappointing results, the tide has finally changed and immunotherapy has become a clinically validated treatment for many cancers. Immuno...

    Authors: Sofia Farkona, Eleftherios P. Diamandis and Ivan M. Blasutig
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2016 14:73
  16. In recent years, the introduction and Federal Drug Administration approval of immune checkpoint inhibitor antibodies has dramatically improved the clinical outcomes for patients with advanced melanoma. These a...

    Authors: Jason M. Redman, Geoffrey T. Gibney and Michael B. Atkins
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2016 14:20
  17. First metabolomics studies have indicated that metabolic fingerprints from accessible tissues might be useful to better understand the etiological links between metabolism and cancer. However, there is still a...

    Authors: Tilman Kühn, Anna Floegel, Disorn Sookthai, Theron Johnson, Ulrike Rolle-Kampczyk, Wolfgang Otto, Martin von Bergen, Heiner Boeing and Rudolf Kaaks
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2016 14:13
  18. In the last years, thanks to the improvement in the prognosis of cancer patients, a growing attention has been given to the fertility issues. International guidelines on fertility preservation in cancer patien...

    Authors: Matteo Lambertini, Lucia Del Mastro, Maria C. Pescio, Claus Y. Andersen, Hatem A. Azim Jr., Fedro A. Peccatori, Mauro Costa, Alberto Revelli, Francesca Salvagno, Alessandra Gennari, Filippo M. Ubaldi, Giovanni B. La Sala, Cristofaro De Stefano, W. Hamish Wallace, Ann H. Partridge and Paola Anserini
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2016 14:1